Replay
by Ragnell13
Summary: People are supposed to live only once. But what if they were given the chance to do it all over again? What if they could replay the game of life?
1. Rewind

**AN of the AN: So, it has been almost a year since the last update, and now that I am fully settled down in Mexico it's about damn time I continue with this. I apologize for taking this long. On a side note, not only have I continued to write the chapters but I have updated the previous ones. Not that much of a change, just grammar and stuff. Anyway thanks for the wait and enjoy the read.**

**AN: Another idea, another fanfic. I couldn't stop myself from writing this.**

**My first humor fanfic. I used to include one or two jokes in my other stories when the situation allowed it, but this is the first time I do a fanfic that's supposed to be funny for at least half of the time you need to read it. Please have mercy.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Love Hina.**

**Enjoy.**

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><p><strong>Replay Prologue: Rewind<strong>

"People are only meant to live once" this is common knowledge. Ask around and almost anyone will answer that they agree with that statement. Regardless of religion or culture, it is a general fact that once it's over, it's over. No second chances. Like a game being played on the hardest difficulty where no extra 1-up's are around for you to conveniently pick up and the enemies are constantly shooting a wall of lasers aimed at your sorry head. And the only way to get extra chances is if you are either a being with supernatural or God like powers OR a sorry ass cheat.

…or both. I'm looking at you Haruhi.

In short, once death arrives it's like an omnipresent Game Over screen with no "Replay" button. Even those who believe in reincarnation may agree that it's not really you coming back to life, but a memory free and fresh baby version of you.

But what would you do if you had the chance to live your life all over again?

The answer to that question is probably very boring so let's skip it and move to a more interesting one. What if, by the omnipotent fictional powers granted to me as the author, my favorite fictional female character was to be granted that very chance?

Now, THAT sure sounds interesting...to me, and probably to you too if you are reading this.

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><p>Marriage is a concept hard to explain. For some it means happiness; a life forever at the side of the one you love until death. For others it is like a life sentence; a life<em> forever<em> at the side of ONE guy or girl. Various philosophers, both known and anonymous, have created various stories, poems and even jokes about marriage; I especially enjoy the later ones.

To many people not suited for it it's like a death sentence; a slow, SLOW death sentence; especially if you are to marry a girl like Narusegawa. A compromise of this magnitude can seem both very intimidating and appealing; at times like hell, and at others like paradise.

Ultimately though the way you feel about it depends of the time you invest on it…

…and of who you are.

For the two lovebirds Narusegawa Naru (Soon to be Urashima) and Urashima Keitaro, it meant paradise, like it would to any about-to-marry couple who had not been forced into the issue. They were a mere week away from the precious day and everything was ready: The Hinata had been cleaned from top to bottom and decorated, the wedding cake had been baked; twice since a certain Molmolense thought yellow meant banana flavored; invitations had been sent and relatives had been informed. All that was left was to make sure no disasters happened, and repair everything once they happened. They ALWAYS happened.

It was an unspoken rule.

So now, who thought of marriage as hell if the two lovers didn't? If you don't know the answer you haven't been paying attention at all.

Maehara Shinobu.

Or more specifically: the girl who had once loved, and continued to love, the man about to marry another woman. She wasn't a bad person; she genuinely felt happiness for Keitaro and Naru, two of her dearest friends; and she did as much as she could to help out with the preparations and make sure her feelings, albeit painful, weren't noticed.

Besides, she was far from the only one with that particular dilemma. Indeed, the dormitory's manager had made a life lasting impression on each of the girls, and had changed their lives forever. It came as no surprise many (If not all) of them developed feelings for the man. Keitaro however wasn't the kind comfortable with more than one partner (You lucky, retarded bastard) and while gently, had made his decision to be with Naru and her only.

Her friends shared her pain and the inhabitants of the Hinata had never been more empathetic with one another. Not to mention Keitaro wasn't going to be forever out of their lives. Once the honeymoon was over he and Naru were to come back and resume life at the dormitory, and Shinobu held no doubt their friendship would last for years. But no matter how hard she tried, her heart refused to feel anything else but deep sadness and regret.

We now find this very girl silently walking towards her room, her heart divided into whether to feel happy for her friends or sad for herself; and mind frustrated at the thought that she had denied a week worth of college work for the sake of baking the wedding cake twice.

But worry not! Her depression is not meant to last long, as a certain tenant is sure to distract her mind from such thoughts.

Who is she? Try to guess…

At times a hyperactive student, at others an exotic and beautiful foreign princess; sometimes a crazy inventor of weapons of mass destruction, but most of all, the only person alive able to eat a ten-floor vanilla cake by herself in less than two hours!

Kaolla Su!

"Hi Shinobu! What'cha doing?" With a hop and a flip, the Molmolense landed (Yes, landed) in front of the blue haired cook.

Shinobu knew her friend was just trying to cheer her up; Kaolla better than any other of her friends knew what she was going through; so she did her best to put a brave face and smile back. "Oh! Hi S-"

Unfortunately for our protagonist, that day the princess wasn't trying to make anyone feel good but the little voice in her head which demanded new inventions every month or so. "Nothing? Great! Come with me!" In fact she had asked that question purely for the sake of minimum etiquette, with absolutely no intention of getting an answer.

"Wait Su! I have to-aaaah!" Her protests unheard, our nineteen year-old tenant got dragged to Kaolla's room.

Even after years of living under the same roof, one never got used to a room like the Molmolense's. Few people would get used to a jungle indoors, even more so if you were kilometers away from such an environment.

Storming into the room, both girls dashed; or rather Su dashed, Shinobu was just making a perfect imitation of a handkerchief against a fan; through a room twice as big as it should be. Dodging various overgrown trees, loose or scattered metal pieces from Su's projects and a rain of lasers from the security system, Shinobu and Su finally arrived at the clearing where they constantly hung out along Sarah. Hazardous environment or not it did have some kind of welcoming feeling.

Sadly that was not the case that day.

"We're here!" Coming to an abrupt stop, Kaolla finally let go of her friend's hand while signaling towards a brand new invention with a dramatic pose, her arms spread wide to symbolize the sheer awsomeness of it. Said invention was, in Shinobu's opinion, quite dirty. In more ways than one.

It consisted of one thick and long post with various cables coming in and out, or both, from it. Covered in oil and banana peels, the top part had various mechanic tentacles connected to it, plus two enormous arms and gloved hands with suckers all over it. On the very top, it had the trinity of eyes as insignia of its Molmolense origin.

Shinobu couldn't help but think it was a 5-meter high dirty scene waiting to happen; she instinctively stepped back just in case she was required to run to safety.

Suddenly the lights went out, with a lone one shinning down on the foreign princess, a mike in her hand. "I present you Shinobu: The Mecha Seer version XD-101!" Oh! So there had been one hundred prototypes before this one…THAT explained the explosions last week.

"The Mecha Seer…?" Eyes aside, the bluenette had no idea how it could have something to do with fortune telling. Maybe it used gigantic tarot cards?

Heavens knew; this was Su after all.

"That's right! This baby has a 150% probability of accurately telling a person's future!" The future? How? And how could something have a 150% percent capacity of telling anything?

"Su, how did… no, WHY did you build that?" She asked on a futile attempt to understand the girl's (Woman's, but it was hard to think of Su as over 18) reasoning, if there was any. She didn't really want to know. The answer was probably a scary one.

"It's a funny story. One month ago I came across this fortune teller who assured me he would tell me my future, but even though I asked many times and did it every day, he couldn't tell me how many bananas I would eat the next day." The Molmolense pouted, remembering her last meeting with the mystic man.

_Flashback_

_"Look, I will pay you but for the love of everything that is holy, LEAVE ME ALONE! You are scaring my other clients!"_

_End of flashback_

Shinobu sweet dropped; only Su would ask about food when confronted with the mysteries of the uncertain future. "Su…that isn't the way fortune telling works…" She tried to explain.

"Yeah, I know! After he got tired of me and kicked me out I asked Motoko about it and she told me that things such as telling one's future weren't real: "Time is an eternal mystery for humanity" she said" Wiping the sad expression from her face, Su grinned; a _dangerous_ grin. Shinobu immediately began to look for escape routes. "But then I thought how awesome it would be to know what was going to happen next, like knowing tomorrow's dinner or if you were going to trip and fall." The words came out of her mouth so fast the cook wouldn't be surprised if her friend suddenly chocked by the sheer amount of them.

"So I began to work on this project. After three weeks, I realized I couldn't surpass time's structure with conventional methods. In other words I needed a fail proof channel. And a week ago I found the solution." She turned merrily towards her and smiled. "Wanna guess what it turned out to be?" She asked.

"Plutonium?" Shinobu was far from stupid, but not even several of the world's geniuses would know how a something; whatever it was; could help someone look into the future. And much less understand Kaolla Su's train of thought. That aside, Shinobu knew Su had radioactive materials hidden under Hinata's basement.

"Nop~nop~nop!" She sang. "The mind!"

"Come again…?"

"Who else would know your future better than yourself?" Shinobu opened her mouth to respond. "Let me answer that for you: No one!" Shinobu closed her mouth in silence. "Once I discovered that, I stopped trying to contact the world in the future and focused on simply trying to contact ONE person at a time!"

Signaling once again to her invention, Su continued.

"The Mecha Seer is programed to connect itself to a person's mind through Nano-needles that enter into the nervous terminals in your column and brain. Then, it contacts that same person's mind into a set time into the future and transfers the memories from the target date to the point in time the connection was made. That way one can know exactly what will happen to him or her up to a set period of time into the future! Amazing right?" As she finished the mad inventor struck a pose and confetti rained around her. Half the fun of inventing stuff was seeing their reactions. In fact, a secret camera known solely by the princess was hidden and constantly recorded said expressions.

Needless to say they were priceless. Amalla agreed with her too.

Shinobu for her part had many, _many_ questions swimming around her head, but she didn't want the answer to any of them. She also had way too many indications of how many things were wrong in that briefing, but Su being who she was she probably wouldn't listen to any of them. "Yes…amazing…"

"And the best part is that it works! Without explosions!" Wow…really? That alone was an achievement worthy of a prize.

"It does…?" Honestly, no one could blame her for the uncertainty in her voice.

"It does! To a 170% percent of capacity." Wasn't it 150% a minute ago?

"And is that all you wanted to show me?" Shinobu was impressed with the invention, she really was, but she had work to do and the cook highly doubted of the thing's ability to work properly or of its safety of use.

She immediately dreaded asking that question.

"Nooooooop." The tanned girl answered. "I wanted to ask for your help in testing it out on an actual human."

"Huh?" She wanted her, to test THAT? There were various reasons she didn't want to do so, the main one being that she didn't want to discover how the tentacles worked, how they were supposed to connect to her mind…or _where_ they were going to inject the needles…

"Please!" Putting on the widely known highly feared but most of all greatly adored crying puppy eyes, the foreign princess asked her best friend to test a machine that was supposed to defeat time like it was a matter of lending her underwear. Unfortunately for Su, Shinobu was an expert in such an expression and thus had grown an invulnerability to it; plus she was NOT giving her chastity to a machine.

"Please! It's for humanity's sake (Yeah sure…) and it's completely safe!" Su pleaded " And I have even tested it on something already."

Shinobu blinked. "You did?"

"Yep! I picked up a street dog around town and used the machine on him." Su said with a completely innocent and guilty free expression.

"Oh my god!" The cook exclaimed as she covered her mouth with both hands. "Su, how could you?" She was horrified with simply imagining what had happened to the poor little thing.

"Calm down, he is right there." Pointing to a side, the student signaled to a sleeping dog; chained and completely fine, at least on the outside. "I tested it on him and afterwards he knew exactly where to go to catch Kuro!" Poor kitty, he suffered for ten minutes before Kanako arrived to save it.

"But Su, isn't that called instinct, or following Kuro's scent?" She asked.

Kaolla Su remained still actually thinking about that possibility; logic tended to have that effect on her; and taking out a notebook she wrote down some notes. "Guess that drops the rate from 180 to 15…"

15% percent chance of success? There was _no way_ she was going to test it. "And you want me to try it out with such a high risk?" Shinobu practically screamed.

The inventor waved it off as nothing. "Relax. I installed a failsafe in it. If something goes wrong that could compromise your safety, it immediately disconnects from you brain and nervous system and shuts down."

"Even then, it is not something I feel safe trying." May her beloved forgive her for what she said next. "Why don't you ask Sempai?"

"Can't" Su pouted and began to fidget with her skirt. "Naru said I couldn't. She told me Keitaro couldn't risk suffering an injury before the wedding."

Nobody would want; at least not for free.

"That's why I'm asking you! Please Shinobu, it will be fast and won't hurt after the first injection and it's completely safe and if you agree I will help you out with whatever you need and even avoid re-eating the cake!" By now crocodile tears were gathering on her eyes.

"No." As tempting as it sounded, and as adorable as Su looked begging like that, she was not doing it.

Su immediately shifted to a perfectly calm and business-like expression. "If you agree I will let you watch the tapes of Keitaro bathing."

"Deal." Then again, she was a perfectly healthy woman with a perfectly healthy attraction to her Sempai's naked body. Naru was going to have him for herself anyways so this might as well be her only chance to see Keitaro in all his glory; and the whole spying thing wasn't so bad…

1 out of 4 people did it.

Don't lie, you know you do.

"Great!" Leading Shinobu to a chair and telling her to wait, Su dashed to the control panel and began to push buttons here and there. The trees adorning the room seemed to descend into the ground and in their place came out various electric pillars with complicated-looking controls in Su's native language. The lights lowered their intensity and the Mecha Seer came to life.

Shinobu gulped and cursed her hormones.

"Ready Shinobu? I will first have to inject you with anesthesia, after that it will all feel painless and when we finish you will know your future! To make sure it works, let's just program it to a week from now."

"O-okay, I'm ready." Shinobu mustered all the courage she could muster to refrain herself from running away.

"Drum roll!" The tanned girl push a button and suddenly the sound of a drum roll filled the room. Shinobu couldn't help but feel she was about to perform a very dangerous stunt. "Aaaaaaaaaaaaand…here we go!" Pressing the typical big red button, the machine was put to work. Its tentacles descended and wrapped themselves around various parts of Shinobu's body, gladly a good distance away from between her legs. Finally, two remaining tentacles simply touched her temples with their tips as one of the gigantic hands positioned itself on top of Shinobu's head while the other did the same on top of the machine's metal eyes.

She faintly felt the pain of a needle coming out from a tentacle wrapped around her arm and entering her vein. As the drug spread through her system, Shinobu felt sleepier and sleepier. Eventually, the nineteen-year old bluenette cook of the Hinata Sou dropped asleep as the machine continued to work; its humming a soothing sound that relaxed her…

…completely oblivious to the error alert that suddenly appeared all over Su's screens.

(As if nobody expected this)

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><p>Coming back to her senses, Shinobu found herself back in the very familiar kitchen of the dormitory. Memories still fresh in her mind, the bluenette waited for any kind of knowledge about the future coming to her.<p>

After 15 minutes of standing around doing nothing...nothing happened.

"_Maybe it didn't work after all?" _That possibility was way more realistic than the idea of it succeeding. _"But why am I here then?" _If it had been a failure and she had remained asleep Su would have moved her back to her room or kept her in one of her own beds; crazy or not, the girl knew how to deal with unconscious test subjects. But instead she woke in the kitchen not laid down or even seated, but standing up; a feat hard to accomplish by those who lost their grip on basic motor functions.

"_Could it be, that THIS is the future?" _Looking around in wonder, Shinobu seized as much as she could about her surroundings. The simple idea of being in the future, even if it was only by one week, was amazing to her. "_Everything is still looking the same though, but it somehow seems… different…"_ She was definitely in the dormitory's kitchen. Everything was like she had left it, not one thing out of place; even so…

"_It all seems bigger, and older." _It had all grown in size. She didn't remember just being halfway to the upper shelves an hour ago; Su's doing? Everything also seemed worn out. The walls were in good condition, but were as dirty as they hadn't been in years. Had it dirtied in just one week? Did they have a party or something? Had it started to be like this without them noticing?

That's when it came to her.

"_One week into the future…"_

"_SEMPAI'S WEDDING!"_

The dates clicked perfectly together. By the silence around the place she quickly deduced no one was inside at the time, and by the light that filtered through the window she guessed it was past noon. It was around now that the ceremony had been planned to be carried out in the yard before the entrance. In fact, by now they should be minutes away from playing "Here comes the bride". "_And I am not even dressed!_" Mind you, she HAD clothes on, they were just not the kind to be used for a wedding.

"_I_ _Can't believe I am late!_" She thought panicked as she broke into a run.Even if it was Su's fault, the girl had no excuse to explain her absence; sad as she may feel, not going to the wedding would probably worry and sadden the girls and Keitaro, not to mention that it was sure to cause some awkward moments. Coming out from the Inn, the bluenette was met with the sight of a plain and normal entrance of the Hinata Sou. Not a single person was outside celebrating anyone's most special day. No candles; no decorations; no relatives; no cake or flowers; no priest and no lovers exchanging vows.

What had happened? Had the wedding been canceled?

A thought suddenly occured to her. "_Is it already over?_" Maybe Keitaro and Naru were done already and on their way to the honeymoon, with everyone chasing after them to say their farewells. Or not. She calmed down and remembered to breathe. Maybe she had traveled more than a week, and the whole thing had already passed; that would explain why the walls seemed dirty. If they had been left for, let's say, a month or so, it would be no surprise they had ended like that. Or maybe with the manager in his honeymoon, Shinobu denying her work for any reason, Su making some disaster or some crazy adventure forcing them all to go away from the Inn the place returned to its old glory.

In fact, now that she took a good look at the whole building from the yard, it did seem old.

Shinobu sighed. Yes, surely there was a realistic and logical explanation to the situation. All she needed was to calm down and think things throughly.

"So this must be it…"

The bluenette stopped trying to use the most boring problem solving method ever and turned around at the sound; she knew that voice better than any other. It was Urashima Keitaro's, whose face greeted her at the top of the long flight of stairs.

Something, again, felt wrong…

He was the Sempai of always, there was no denying that, but he looked different. A little less handsome? A little thinner, or less fit? That aside, the biggest problem were his clothes. They were casual, too casual for the day you were supposed to get married. Which confirmed that either she was not one week ahead of time and was simply being ridiculous, or she was not the only one of the bunch to wear casual on an outdoor wedding.

"_Please let it be the first, please let it be the first, please let it be the first..._"

"…the inn that my grandmother runs…" Her Sempai continued to mutter, oblivious of her presence.

Shinobu stopped rambling mentally and began to walk towards him, already thinking which questions to ask so she could get an idea of the context she was in without revealing the experiment she was undergoing. Wouldn't do good to worry him by speaking about time traveling, metal seers, and most of all: Su.

"The Hinata." Keitaro concluded.

Getting closer, Shinobu realized something that left her amazed. _"Sempai has grown taller by one head!" _Usually she was almost as tall as him, reaching him up to the nose at eye level. Now, she was sure she would barely reach his neck with her full height. It reminded her of when she had first met him.

Wait a minute…

"Oh! Um… hi there!" Snapping back from her thoughts, Shinobu realized Keitaro was addressing her. He seemed a bit nervous as he was rubbing the back of his head while talking. "Do you live here?"

"_huh?_" She thought. Why was he treating her like a stranger? "Um…Sempai?" She asked, though she didn't know why. Keitaro was Keitaro.

"_huh?_" He echoed. Keitaro looked at her with complete confusion. "Sorry little girl, but I think you confused me with someone else."

With someone else? He was exactly alike! Did her Sempai had a twin? But Kanako was his only relative, and not even a blood related one. "Keitaro-sempai?" Shinobu ventured, just to make sure he wasn't drugged or something; amnesia maybe? Had he hit his head again?

The moment she said those words his expression became one of surprise. He seemed to think deeply about something, immerse in his thoughts, before shaking his head. "It can't be her…" He mumbled lowly.

"What?"

"Oh! Nothing!" keitaro flailed his arms around, as if trying to clear a misunderstanding. "So you know me…" He gulped and gave her a deep bow. "I'm really sorry, but I don't remember you! Please forgive my rudeness, little girl-san!"

"_…what?_" Why was he saying such weird things? Why didn't he remember her? After all they had passed together he should be at least able to-

Shinobu's mind paralyzed.

"_After everything we have passed…_"

Su's machine had surely failed; there was no doubt about it. But what if, instead of sending her ahead in time, she had done so backwards?

"_The past…" _Turning around to look at her reflection on the Inn's mirror, she no longer saw the tall, developed and feminine looking nineteen year-old Shinobu, but the adorable, short and plain-chested twelve year-old Shinobu.

She had been sent into the past. And that was something very, VERY bad.

Su had explained that the machine was meant to transfer future memories to the present time. But this was clearly years in the past, on a familiar situation but with unfamiliar memories. Why was she here, greeting keitaro at the entrance yard when she had first seen him almost naked and running for his life? How could she move in the direction she hadn't gone then, feel the wind that had not run through her face that morning, or see the things she hadn't back in her memories?

Why was she doing things she didn't remember in the least?

She was clearly in the past, but it seemed this wasn't just a memory or a flashback. Pinching her arm, she felt pain, meaning this was not a dream (Too bad). Inspecting it, there was not a single mark of the injection she had received. This plus the environment, Keitaro not recognizing her, the dormitory, and her own body; everything indicated she was in the past.

Her memories, her knowledge of who Keitaro was and what he was doing here, the emotions she felt and had done so for a long time towards the man standing in front of her; it all told her she came or at least knew of the future.

Su's machine supposedly transferred the memories from her future self to her present self, but what if, by an (un)expected accident, instead of doing what it was meant to do…the machine had transferred HER present memories to the past Shinobu?

"Hey, are you all right?" Keitaro asked, worried about the girl who had not moved and inch since his apology. Her face was completely white, and the look on her face was shocked and distant. She wasn't even breathing. Had he caused that? Was she sick?

Finally connecting two and two, Shinobu did something she hadn't done for a long time…

She promptly fainted.

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><p><strong>AN: So there you go. Again a fanfic with Shinobu (My adoration for her is powerful) and yes, it's a time travel fic. Sue me. (Please don't)<strong>

**Hope you enjoyed and reviews are welcome, especially if they help me improve in making others laugh (Or at least smirk).**

**Have a good day and bye.**

**Ragnell out. Peace.**


	2. Begin

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Love Hina, nor am I gaining any sort of income with this fictional work.**

**Enjoy**

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><p><strong>Replay<strong>

"Are you all right?"

What? Who?

"Come on, wake up."

Shinobu did as she was told and slowly opened her eyes. The scenery around her was blurry, as if she was seeing everything trough a thin layer of water. Her mind was full of questions like: where am I? Or what's happening? Along a strange feeling that she wasn't going to like the answers.

As her eyes adjusted to the light she came face to face with one of her favorite sights: her sempai in all of his Kind Glory. His face was close to her own, watching her with worry for her well-being. The light that filled the room hit him from behind, creating a luminous halo around his head that have him an angelical appearance.

Either that or she was still drugged due to anesthesia.

Finally keitaro seemed to realize she was awake. "Are you okay? You suddenly fainted so I brought you here. Do you have some sort of fever?" He placed a hand of her forehead; Shinobu smiled. When had it been the last time her sempai had treated her like this. She had missed all that attention which had gone to Naru over the last years. What was more, soon they would be on their honeymoon and she wouldn't see them for a couple of weeks.

Deciding to take as much as she could while she still was able to, Shinobu allowed herself to enjoy the contact and to blush deeply; due to the latter keitaro became convinced she was indeed with fever.

"Don't worry Sempai, I'm fine. I just…" Why had she fainted again?

Oh right! She was sent to the past by Su.

"_The past…"_

"You just what?" Keitaro asked curiously; the girl had remained silent before finishing the sentence. Should he call a doctor?

"_I'm in the past…"_

"Wait here; I will go get my Granny…" Keitaro was about to stand when…

"_I'M IN THE FUCKING PAST!"_ Like a flash, Shinobu rose from lying down on the couch to a sitting position, crashing heads with her Sempai in the middle of it all.

Rubbing the spots that were surely going to swell by the next day both looked at each other. Silence remained for ten seconds before both chuckled at the weird event. "I'm sorry, I was just startled." Shinobu apologized still rubbing her fore head.

"Don't worry; it was my fault for being so close to you." Keitaro said while rubbing his back of the head like he was used to do. Both once again kept quiet while treating their wounds for some minutes before keitaro spoke again. "Say, could I ask you a question?"

Shinobu, who had been thinking what she should do now that she was six years into the past, turned to answer. "Sure." She didn't know what to do, but for the time being it was best to just follow the current with keitaro.

"I'm sorry to ask you this, but what is your name? You know mine and I forgot yours." He admitted apologetically, though there was nothing to be sorry about. Shinobu had screwed up by calling him by his name when they had not met yet. Now she had to come up with a story to cover up her lie.

"My name is Shinobu Maehara, and don't worry Sempai I don't really mind you forgot. We just talked for some minutes a couple of years ago." Yes, that sounded nice. If they had just met briefly then the fact keitaro forgot would be credible.

"Oh really? Thanks Shinobu-Chan…you don't mind I call you that way right?" He guessed he could, after all she was addressing to him like Sempai. Shinobu shook her head to say she didn't mind. "By the way, how did we meet?"

"Emm…you see…we…" Her mind raced trying to find something credible to say. She didn't know the places Keitaro frequented before coming to the Hinata. Well, she DID know of one place he was at…

"We met at Tokyo U!" She declared. Already, question marks were appearing on top of Keitaro's face.

"We did?" _"She is too young to be my promise girl, and I would definitely remember talking to a cute girl before."_ He, after all, hadn't had that much interaction with the opposite sex over the last 15 years.

"Y-yes! You see, I was buying some things I needed for school when I tripped. You saw me and helped me out and we just talked for some minutes before you went to take the exam." Shinobu, seeing that Keitaro had believed her, released a sigh of relief. She also made a mental note not to screw up again.

"Shinobu."

"Yes Naru-Sempai?"

"Who is he?" Asked the red-head as she pointed towards Keitaro.

"He is Keitaro-Sem…-Naru-Sempai! What are you doing here?" The startled cook had not seen or heard her friend approach and was taken completely by surprise. Keitaro by his part was just silently on the sidelines; the way the girl had asked that question sounded as if he wasn't supposed to be there.

"I was going to take a bath at the hot springs when I saw you talking to him." At first she was going to kick the man out of the dormitory simply because he was a stranger, and a man, talking to an underage girl inside a girl-exclusive area. She had a change of ideas when she took notice of how odd Shinobu was acting; she was a shy, sweet and timid little girl, she even had trouble communicating with Naru and the other tenants, yet here she was talking so casually to a stranger man.

Besides, by the bits of conversation she got they seemed to know each other. "So, who is he?"

"I-I am…my name is Urashima Keitaro, good afternoon." He finished giving her a deep bow; even if Naru had asked Shinobu he presented himself out of courtesy.

Naru didn't seem to mind, and even put a surprised face when he told her his name. "Urashima? As in the owner's relative?"

"Yes actually, my grandmother runs this place." Keitaro hoped that, by presenting himself to be the owner's grandson, his possibilities to stay would rise. "By the way, have you seen my granny? I need to speak with her."

"She is not here." Replied Naru with a straight face.

"W-what do you mean she is not here?" He asked nervously. Keitaro needed to be let to stay at the Inn, the other option was to go crawling back to his parents and that would mean saying good-bye to Tokyo U.

"You see Sempai, Granny Hina left the Inn a year ago to tour around the world, and even turned the Hinata into an all-girls-dormitory before leaving." Shinobu remembered Keitaro didn't know about Granny or the status of the dormitory when he first arrived, so she explained things to make everything clear soon.

Sadly, that didn't ease Keitaro's pain. "A-an all-girls dormitory!" Naru and Shinobu nodded. "And granny left a year ago!" Another pair of nods. Keitaro felt his shoulders fall. "Does that mean…I can't stay here?"

"No." Replied Naru once again with a plain face.

"I'm screwed." In resignation, Keitaro dropped to his knees; his head lowered in misery as he could already feel the tears in his eyes. _"I even made a vow to my parents that I wouldn't go back until I got accepted in the university. 1 day 3 hours and 28 minutes later and I already have to break that vow."_

He lifted his gaze to look at the two girls. Shinobu was looking at him with worry and pity; Keitaro admitted it felt nice to have a cute girl like her worrying over him, even if that meant him being fucked. Naru, while trying to remain serious and unwavering in her decision of "No males in the dorm", one could see small traces of pity in the corner of her eyes. _"And to think, that I was hoping I could stay here with girls like them around. It would have been wonderful."_

"Hey Naru, who's screwed?" Before Keitaro could continue lamenting himself, a new voice came into the scene. It belonged to a young woman with white hair and eyes akin to a fox. In her hands she held a towel and various bathing supplies, obviously intent on using the hot springs.

Lamely, Keitaro raised his hand. "Me." His reply got the attention of the girl, who was more than a little bit curious about the man. Nonetheless, she couldn't let the chance to have some fun slip by.

"Ok then. Just remember to tell your friend to use some protection, 'k?"

"Not _that_ kind of screwed Kitsune." Naru said irritably among the man's sputtered denials. In all honesty, she didn't know how her friend could act like that in front of a complete stranger.

"So what's your name anyway?" Bending down so she was eye-leveled with the knelt man, Kitsune have him a subtle hand salute.

"Urashima Keitaro, nice to meet you…"

"Konno Mitsune. Say, are you related to the manager or something?"

"The manager?" Keitaro asked. While his grandmother was the currently absent owner, he had no idea who was the manager.

"She is Haruka-San, Sempai." Finally realizing who they were talking about, Keitaro admitted Haruka to be his aunt. Kitsune by her side was slightly surprised that Shinobu knew the man, and even called her the way she did.

"So why are you here anyway?" Following with the interrogation, Kitsune was interested in knowing Keitaro's motives for his presence; anything to keep her entertained.

That day was particularly boring and she had an almost supernatural feeling that the man meant fun.

"I wanted to see my granny and ask her if I could stay at the Inn; that way it would be easier to study for the University." The Ronin answered with a pang of deception at knowing that plan was no longer an option.

"So the university, huh?" The fox lady never really bothered with it; she saw it as unrequired work.

"Now that I think about it, from what I heard from Shinobu he said he applied for Tokyo U." Naru admitted, interested in anything that had to do with her educational goal. Gazing at Keitaro, she locked eyes with him, waiting for a response.

"That means you are in Tokyo University!" Asked a very surprised Kitsune. Even if she didn't really care that was an impressive feat. Naru kept looking at the Ronin intently, also wanting to know. Shinobu merely sighed; she already knew the sad truth.

Keitaro lowered his head so much it threatened to fall off his head. "No, I failed the exam." He admitted lamely.

"Oh, well. He didn't strike me as the smart type anyway." Recuperating from her almost shock in an instant, Kitsune dismissed the man like nothing, making the Ronin even more depressed; if it was possible.

Naru didn't look all that shaken. Truth is, from the beginning she had her doubts the guy could have entered. Call it feminine intuition, but she agreed with her friend on the regard Keitaro didn't look so smart.

Shinobu simply went to his side and began patting his back in comfort; much like one would pet a lost puppy in the rain.

Keitaro simply continued in his misery.

"Hey, who are you?" Innocently, Su asked the question while having a finger over her lips, resembling a little kid. Her sudden appearance startled the present girls, yet Keitaro was still crying internally so much to pay any attention. "Hey Naru, is he dead?" Su asked at the lack of reaction; or movement for that matter; of the man.

One could only wonder how she could ask that question seriously.

And yes, she was seriously asking it.

"No, he is just sad." Naru answered. The Molmolense thought it as a good enough answer and, taking a stick out of nowhere, began poking Keitaro with it. Shinobu didn't even bother telling her to stop; she doubted her sempai was feeling it anyway.

"Why are you here? Did you come to peep at us? Motoko says that's the only reason men come here." Again, Su asked it in complete seriousness, genuinely wanting to know.

As Shinobu explained to Su the concept of "Reason" and why she shouldn't ask those things out of nowhere, Motoko entered the living room wondering what was happening. She was greeted with the sight of a corpse being poked with a stick by Su, patted in the back by Shinobu; who was also scolding Su for asking the corpse if he was a pervert; and her reaming two fellow tenants standing by the side.

She barely managed to contain the urge to sweat drop at the weirdness of everything. "What's happening here?" Motoko asked at the same time she realized the man was breathing, barely.

"Well you see: he…" Kitsune pointed at the seemingly dead man. "…is granny's grandson who is going to get fucked because he didn't enter Tokyo U, and came here to ask permission from granny to peep on us all." As Kitsune finished her explanation Naru palmed her face; Motoko simply looked at her with a dry face.

"I see." No she didn't, she really didn't.

Meanwhile, Su kept asking uncomfortable questions.

"Do you want him to peep on you Shinobu?" The girl asked.

"No." Shinobu answered tiredly. Now instead of pestering Keitaro she switched to the cook.

"If he is dead how can he breathe?"

"He is not dead."

"What's a Tokyo U? Can you eat it?" Again, she was meaning it.

"No."

"Really? It sounded tasty." Worst part was, Su applied to that university because she was actually convinced it could be eaten.

And she did chew on a brick once.

Through the entire time, Keitaro was knelt on the ground his head lowered on misery, a little storm cloud looming over his head. He couldn't stay in the Inn-turned-dormitory because he was a man, he couldn't go back to his parents out of pride and because he still wanted to go to Tokyo U, and his Grandmother wasn't around to help him. On top of everything, he didn't have any money left.

He was, in one word, screwed.

Haruka opened the front door of the Inn and looked inside. She was there to look at the girls since it was her job as manager, and what she saw was a surprise. In the center of the living room lay her nephew keitaro, looking rather depressed. Su was beside him using a stick to poke him. Shinobu was comforting the man and the other three girls looked at the man with different levels of curiosity. Everyone, minus an unresponsive Keitaro, turned towards her.

"Do I want to ask?" Haruka said in regards to her relative. Shinobu, Motoko and Naru shook their heads at the same time, Kitsune nodded and Su kept using her stick.

The older woman just sighed. She didn't get enough money for doing her job.

_**Division**_

"I see." After a couple of awkward introductions and waking Keitaro with a bucket of cold water, the residents, manager and visitor all sat around in the living room. During that time the young man had explained his situation to his aunt, getting her to understand his reasons for coming over. "I'm sorry to hear that Keitaro. Wish I could help you out but Granny is no longer here and there's nothing else I can do. It would have been nice to have you here though, and commuting to school would have been easy from here."

Keitaro nodded. Left unsaid was that it would have been economical for him as at the moment he was broke. "Yeah, it would have been a big help." Standing up, the Ronin grabbed his suitcase and bowed to the girls. "Well, sorry for bothering you like this. Guess I will go now." He walked towards the door, followed from behind by Haruka.

"Once again sorry Keitaro. Good luck with everything."

"Thanks." Behind the cousins, the tenants of the dormitory had all certain pity for the man. Though, not enough to actually let him stay; it was his life after all.

Surprisingly, one of the stood and made her way to Keitaro.

Even more surprising, that one was Shinobu.

"Wait sempai, you can stay here if you want." The moment the last word left her lips everyone turned to her with a mixture of shock, surprise and disbelief.

"I can?" Asked Keitaro.

"He can?" Simultaneously asked the girls.

Then they all turned to Haruka. As manager she was the one to have the final voice, though she hadn't suggested it earlier simply because she never thought the girls would accept.

Keeping her cool, she shrugged. "If you girls are alright with that then I have no problem with him staying." Haruka then proceeded to take her cigarette and inhale some of the sweet nicotine, leaving the younger ones to deal with it.

"Really?" This time only Motoko and Naru asked, Su silent while witnessing everything and Kitsune was silent but for different reasons. She focused her eyes on Shinobu who was smiling reassuringly to Keitaro. There was something wrong here; this wasn't their Shinobu.

For his part, Keitaro was smiling in relief and hope for the first time since he arrived. Knowing one of them already supported him, he looked pleadingly towards the girls; the bluenette followed suit.

"Please, let sempai stay. He is a good man who had some bad luck." Rather, he had _a lot_ of bad luck. "He won't do anything perverted…" She knew really well that such was a complete and shameless lie, mainly because of the aforementioned misfortune. "…and he even helped me when he arrived." Taking advantage of her rejuvenated body she put the cutest teary-puppy face she could muster. Even among girls, it was a devastating blow. "Please." She added cutely.

The girls were all dumbstruck; more because of Shinobu's actions rather than her request. She was supposed to be a shy girl, somewhat distant from the others. Yet here she was, begging them for the man to stay with absolutely no trace of nervousness, or stutter or anything Shinobu _should_ be doing.

Kitsune was the first to be knocked out of the surprise. _"I knew it…" _Her eyes narrowed even more and she grinned internally. _"The sudden change in attitude, the friendly way she speaks to him, all the help she is willing to give him." _There was no mistaking it.

Their friend had been hit by an arrow of Cupid.

Or rather, been smacked in the head with a hammer by the flying, invisible and mystic baby in diapers if the drastic change in attitude had anything to say.

In short, the shy, timid and reserved pre-teen girl was in love.

No FRICKING way she was losing this.

"I agree." In a flash she was besides the man in question, ready to answer to the "What?" her fellow tenants had given her. "How could we ignore such an unfortunate man? We must let him stay here at the Hinata. Besides, if he does something perverted we can kick him out, right?" In her best political voice Kitsune tried convincing the girls, knowing deep down she already had her victory assured.

"But…" Started Naru, a bit put off by the suddenness of the entire thing. In response, Kitsune was quickly besides Shinobu doing along her the cute teary face. Not wanting to let his chance escape Keitaro moved as well, also putting the same pleading face as the two girls. Even with age and gender difference considered, the three of them did make a cute sight.

In a sort of creepy way in Keitaro's case.

"_Kitsune…" _For the moment Shinobu had her head full of worries, the top one being how to repair the whole time-travel problem. She would have to talk to Su later about it, but for now best thing she could do was ensuring time wasn't too altered; she had seen in movies what happened when you messed with it and she had a mental image of a Dictator Su and her army of Mecha Tamas taking over the world if she screwed up.

That said, she felt a bit guilty about using her friend like this. Truth is she knew the girls were put off by her "sudden" change in attitude, and had a fairly good idea of why the fox was supporting the idea.

But that was pretty much it.

Much of Shinobu's innocence had been taken by the years and she had priorities over feeling guilty about knowing what was going to happen.

Still somewhat doubtful, Naru and Motoko looked at each other and then back at the pleading group; this time it had been joined by Su who didn't want to be left out. For a moment the pair was afraid Haruka would jump in too, but the woman remained by the side smocking her cigarette.

It was a relief; _that_ would have been weird.

"Okay, he can stay." Both girls gave in to their demands, knowing they wouldn't stand a chance if they decided to protest. Besides, he seemed like a nice guy, and even helped Shinobu when she fainted; thing which even Motoko had to admit was admirable for a man. And if their friend trusted him so much, then he couldn't be that bad.

OR he could be a manipulative son of a bitch taking advantage of a girl's innocent heart to succeed in his perverted intentions.

It was a 50-50.

They would have to take their chances.

"Okay then! Let's give our guest a proper welcome." Kitsune announced as she and the other girls moved to be in front of Keitaro.

Together they all welcomed him. "Welcome to the Hinata-Sou!" They all shouted together.

Meanwhile, Keitaro was crying out of happiness. His problems seemed less daunting after this. For now, he had a place to stay. "Thank you." He said wholeheartedly, turning all emotional and wiping the tears with the sleeve of his shirt.

_**Division**_

With the girls convinced and Keitaro unpacking his belongings on Granny's ex-room, Shinobu found herself walking down the hallway towards Su´s quarters. Very few were the times she dared to set foot on those perilous grounds, but as she was in the middle of an emergency she didn't put much thought to it.

She had wanted to stay behind and help her Sempai install around the dorm; or rather to make sure no incidents happened that would cause Keitaro to be kicked out of the Hinata. There was little she dared to do though. She had for the eleventh time confirmed and assured to herself that she was from the future or at least had knowledge of it; she also made sure she wasn't dreaming. Afterwards, Shinobu had made the decision of not messing up with the continuity of history and time.

In other words, making sure that what was supposed to happen happened. Just like she procured that her sempai stayed at the Inn like it should happen, she couldn't stop his perverted incidents, which were meant to occur, from happening. If she did it would have dire consequences once she returned to the future. The least she wanted was to return to her time just to witness how Su took over the world.

God help us all if that ever happened.

Trembling as a shiver went down her spine at the thought, Shinobu stopped at the front of her friend's room. Knocking, she called out to her. "Su! Are you there? I need to speak with you." Seconds passed before an answer came.

"Coming!" From inside the room sounds of metallic objects clashing and crashing with one another could be heard as the tanned Molmolense made her way to the door. The blue-haired cook had the common sense of stepping aside just in case some kind of laser; or any kind of destructive weapon for that matter; burst out once the door opened.

Both luckily and unusually, it didn't.

"Hiya Shinobu! What'cha here for?"

"Nothing important, just some scientific questions. Think you could help me out?" Shinobu answered trying to push the girl a bit farther away; Su was closer to her friend than what was considered comfortable.

"Okay sure! Come inside!" Turning around, Su ran inside her room cheerfully. Shinobu hesitated before following suit; she had hoped to make the conversation at the door to avoid entering the jungle, but now that she thought about it was best to do it in private. There was no private space better than Su's room.

No one with some sort of sanity entered without a good reason.

Careful not to step on anything, nothing at all, the cook finally arrived to the clearing where, seven years into the future, would stand the invention that sent her back in time. With any luck, it would be there earlier than it was meant to.

Sitting down in front of a table by the center, Su signaled her friend to take seat. "So what do you want to ask Shinobu?"

"It is sort of complicated." And that was why she was asking her. The inventor herself was a complicated type of person. "Let's just say that, hypothetically, a man was sent some years into the past. Would he be able to go back to his time?"

Rubbing her chin thoughtfully, Su pondered about the question for some seconds trying to come up with an answer. "It depends." She finally said.

"In what?" If there was a condition for being able to go back to the future, Shinobu could only hope her situation still allowed that possibility.

"Would that man be able to find his way back by himself?"

"Erm…no, he wouldn't"

"Then he is stuck." She stated simply, completely ignoring the shock in Shinobu's face.

"W-what do you mean by 'stuck'?" She knew she wouldn't like the answer; that had been the case the whole day. She didn't like the answer when she asked Su what her invention was, she didn't like the answer when she wondered what had happened when she woke up, and now Shinobu would completely hate the answer to her current question.

Why the hell were all her recent doubts being answered in such a shitty way?

Was this how Keitaro felt with his bad luck? Having the entire fricking universe screwing with you?

After this was over she was SO changing her Shinto religion. Her current gods seemed to have a knack at messing with her life.

"Here, let me draw it for you." Su took a sheet of paper and put it on the table. Swiftly, she drew three straight lines without even using a ruler, all of them parallel to the other. "Do you know about the Multiverse theory?"

Shinobu nodded; that had been on one of her philosophy classes while on her first year in the university. The theory stated that, every time a decision was made, different universes would be created for each possible answer. These worlds would never cross with one another, and covered all the possibilities one could think of, and more; the what if's. There was infinity of universes branching out from any decision, at any point in time, anywhere in the universe, by any sort of form of life.

"Well, if someone was to travel to the past, _this_ would happen." Using a pencil, Su drew an arrow from one extreme of the middle line to the other. "That person would go back inside its own universe. But if that person was to alter something in the past…" This time, she drew an arrow connecting the 'past' extreme of the middle line with the one above it. "…then a new universe would branch out from those changes, and if that person was to travel to the future it would be to a different one corresponding to the branching universe."

Shinobu felt all her hopes drain away. Sadly, she understood what her friend was trying to say: to be able to go back to the original future you had to make sure not to change history; if you did, then you would be in one of the 'what if' universes, which meant a 'what if' future as well. "And the reason I-I mean!-the man would have to go back by himself is because…" She left it hanging for Su to finish.

"As whatever means to travel in time weren't used until much later, using them earlier would successfully change the past, and thus the future. It's a chain reaction."

The bluenette dropped her head. That was it, she was screwed; even more screwed than her sempai and that was something really extreme. Shinobu was lost. If what Su said was true, then the moment she changed her initial meeting with Keitaro she was trapped in the past. "And…would there be a way to find the original universe?" Shinobu asked without much hope for a satisfactory answer.

"Maybe, but not only would that mean beating time but space as well, not to mention you would have to find the correct universe out of the infinity of worlds." Su continued her explanation with a happy attitude, liking the idea of interesting her friend into her hobbies. While she talked, the foreign princess was oblivious to the little storm cloud raining down on Shinobu's head.

"…and what about other theories…?" It was her last chance. No one had really proved the existence of parallel universes, so maybe she could try with another time-space theory.

"Other ones? Well…" Su racked her brain in the search for another possibility. She personally liked the parallel one better and stuck with it, but she knew of others as well. "…the other possibility would be that the man sent to the past remained within the same universe, not going to another."

The sentence managed to make Shinobu's head snap back up with such a speed it was a surprise it hadn't fell. "Really? Inside the same universe?" She asked hopefully; Su nodded. "But what about the future?"

"In that case, _this_ would happen." Eraser in hand, the tanned girl deleted most of the middle line and with it Shinobu's illusions as well. "The future would be entirely rewritten, erasing the previous one."

"Erasing…?" She asked as comical tears threatened to fall out her eyes.

"Yeah! You know like, a storm of anti-matter, or an apocalypse."

That made Shinobu go pale. In her mind, she could see the beautiful wedding day of her Sempai being interrupted as meteors fell like droplets in the rain, fire scorched the land, and reality was torn apart.

"_Sorry guys…"_

Without even trying, she had successfully ruined the wedding before it even happened, and also destroyed the universe while at it.

She had to admit tough, that took some level of talent.

Her legs going weak, Shinobu barely managed to stand up from the pillow as she made her way out of the room. "That's all I wanted to know…thanks Su…" She said miserably, her head, arms and shoulders dropped.

"No problem!" Su beamed. "What are you doing now?" Maybe she could go too, but she had some work to do.

"Nothing important, just kill myself…probably."

"Okay then! Good luck Shinobu!" She should have been really disturbed at how her friend could dismiss a thing as serious as suicide with such a carefree attitude; but Shinobu was really tired at the moment and didn't feel like dwelling in her friend's antics. She had more urgent things to do.

As she exited the room and closed the door, the time-travel cook set herself towards her next task.

Finding a rope.

_**Division**_

As it turned out, Shinobu couldn't muster enough courage to end her life, thus being faced with the inevitability of dealing with the current problem at hand. She was stuck. While she could go back to the future if she requested the construction of the Mecha Seer from Su, it had already been stated she wouldn't return to _her_ future. Not even that idea of going to the past; again; and stopping herself from meeting Sempai would work.

She had already asked her inventor friend about that possibility.

In such case the next step would be deciding how to deal with her situation. Shinobu wasn't as naive as she was before. The enormity of the possibility that had just been presented to her was obvious to her. How many wouldn't give anything for a chance to start over?

Who wouldn't like to begin from zero, to erase their mistakes and failures, to redo their lives?

Everyone made mistakes, everyone had regrets; and Shinobu wasn't an exception. She had too wandered countless times inside the lands of fiction; possibilities that; had she acted differently, would be open for her to take. And above everything else, many a times had she created fantasies and fictional scenarios with the man she never had the courage to try and pursue a relationship with.

"_Keitaro…"_

She had always wished for an opportunity like this; a kind of miracle that solely occurred inside fairy tales. Shinobu had resigned herself to the fate of staying by the sidelines; always seeing, never taking any action; and not interfering with the growing love between Naru and Keitaro.

She had, however, sworn to herself that if one of those miraculous events ever happened to her she would jump at the opportunity without thinking.

But that was better said than done.

Now that she actually had a chance, a second chance, that went beyond the sketches of logic and reason yet managed to be real, she couldn't take it; Shinobu was being faced with one particular emotion that denied her the realization of her long-wanted dream.

Guilt.

It wasn't right no matter how you looked at it. Life should only be lived once, and definitely not with clear knowledge of what lied ahead. She shouldn't be getting this chance, it went against her morale; she would be cheating.

She had not enough reasons to go that far; it would be selfish, to rewrite history just so she could accommodate it to her wishes. And for what? So she could be with her Sempai? Not only would that be betraying Naru and her friends´ trust, Keitaro would be disappointed if he knew; it was unlikely, but Shinobu knew that should he acquire the knowledge he would disapprove it.

And thus, Shinobu found herself stuck; not only in what referred to the fluency of time, but also between her desire to take the opportunity and what morale dictated.

It was while in this state of confusion that she released a sigh inappropriate for a girl of her physical age. And it was this sigh that a certain person heard. "Shinobu-Chan?"

"Oh…hi Sempai." She greeted him halfheartedly, not really putting much effort into disguising her troubled mood. What would be the case?

"Are you feeling okay?" Keitaro had been exploring around the inn, reminiscing old times when he had seen the girl he owned a great favor to and decided to greet her. Once he heard her sigh and took notice of her downed spirits he became worried. "Is that fever still causing you trouble? You should rest a bit."

"Huh? No, it's okay. I'm not really depressed because of that." Shinobu didn't even spare her Sempai a glance, and continued staring into the distance with yearning eyes. Looking at him wouldn't do her any good at the moment.

"Then what is that's bothering you?" He was in debt with her; the least he could do was helping her cheer up. Keitaro just hoped she didn't take offense in him trying to meddle in her affairs.

The cook considered telling him for a moment. There was no real reason to hide it from him. She lost nothing by trying to get his advice and maybe it could even help her make up her mind. "Well…there is this girl in my class…"

"Is she a friend of yours?" He hoped; Keitaro didn't like the idea of Shinobu being bullied.

"Yes. And…well, she took this really important exam and failed."

"So you are worried she will reprobate the year?" He would, had that happened to either Shirai or Haitani.

"Not really. It's more about a moral dilemma than an academic one. You see, due to some weird events I don't really know of, she was given a second chance to redo the exam, and I am not really convinced she should take up the offer."

"Why not? Isn't it better for her?"

"It is, but the thing is it's the very same exam, with the very same questions and answers. She already knows what will be inside the test. Wouldn't it be cheating?"

"…yeah, kinda sounds like it would be unfair." Keitaro admitted.

"Exactly. And not only with the exams; there are many things that should only be done once. Redoing them would be cheating and selfish. Shouldn't she decline the opportunity and live with it?" A yes was all Shinobu needed, and her decision would be made.

"You are right, it would be cheating and selfish...but if I had the chance, I would probably take it."

Not caring any longer about avoiding eye contact with the man, Shinobu turned to face him. Even after years of knowing him, there were still things about him that surprised Shinobu. Would he really do something so low?

Seeing her look of disbelief, Keitaro quickly explained. "Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't go as far as to try to convince the teachers to let me repeat it, but if the chance presented itself, why decline it?"

"But…wouldn't that be…?"

"Yeah, I know. It wouldn't be fair for others, and it would be a selfish thing to do, but…" Keitaro looked at the distance, trying to find the correct words. Truth be told, he had already faced a similar situation at High School. "You know? I have had this specific goal since childhood, and I would do anything to achieve it. I would never step so low as to manipulate the whole thing, but if it happens, then it happens. Everyone deserves a second chance right?"

He turned back to lock eyes with the bluenette. In them, he could see her longing for an answer. "Besides, wouldn't it be alright, to be selfish just for once? To stop thinking about others' happiness and focus on your own? At least that way, you wouldn't come to regret it later."

"Regret it later…" Her mother had once told her "live without regrets". It was an impossible feat; inevitably she would have things in her life that wouldn't go right. But what it meant was that she should try to make things in a way she wouldn't regret it later.

If she once again stood aside, if she once again lost this chance with her sempai…

"_I would regret it."_

Her mind was made.

"Thanks sempai, you really helped me out." Shinobu said wholeheartedly. Even after years of knowing Keitaro, some things about him still took her by surprise. For example, how he could become wise when needed. _"Really, thank you."_

Scratching his head in embarrassment at the gratefulness he was receiving, Keitaro tried to shrug it off. "No problem Shinobu-Chan, anything to help you and your friend."

The bluenette nodded and turned back to look at the view of the town. Suddenly, the doubts and confusing that were assaulting her ceased, and were replaced by a sense of endless possibilities.

Just another proof of the power her Sempai had over her.

_**Division**_

It was a beautiful morning.

Birds chirped.

Wind blew.

Sakura petals floated in the air.

And Shinobu was preparing for the inevitable.

It had been three days since Keitaro's arrival to the Inn and Shinobu remembered well what the date meant. For years it had been an important anniversary among the residents of the Hinata.

Luckily, even with a couple of awkward accidents with Naru here and there, her sempai had been accepted; well, kind off. Motoko still had her doubts about him staying, but otherwise that was it. No real problem to force Keitaro out of the dormitories.

At least, until that day.

She had prepared breakfast early in the morning, careful not to serve an extra plate for their unexpected visitor to avoid setting anyone off. She had enjoyed, with her whole heart, the look on Keitaro's face when he once again tasted her food for the first time. Even the girls were praising her for the sudden improvement, no doubt attributing it to her pathetically obvious crush.

Years of practice really. Even if her body was different, her knowledge and skill at some things hadn't changed.

It was in the middle of this meal when Haruka arrived, a stack of papers in hand. She greeted everyone and received the expected questions of what brought her here. She was the manager (not for long) and had to check on them regularly, but that often was about once a week.

She ignored the questions, and instead asked how life with her nephew had been. She had received positive answers. Even the two most reluctant girls had admitted he wasn't so bad to be with, and Kitsune pointed out the place had cheered up after he arrived.

Needless to say, that moved Keitaro a great deal.

Sadly, it wasn't to last.

With praise and congratulations, Haruka handed the man the property papers announcing him as the owner of the entire piece of land under the condition he became manager; a place to stay for free, a work to make money and property papers.

What could be better?

A sole second passed with everyone, minus certain cook, in shock silence.

Then chaos erupted.

Shinobu just uncharacteristically sighed.

_**Division**_

**There you go, the first chapter. Not really funny, but I had the whole moral thing resolved. Now Shinobu will focus on her goal. This is based in the manga, so any doubts about the plot or about events that happen offscreen just look at the volumes.**

**Thanks for ready and please review. I am checking the status of my stories and far more people read them than the ones who review it. So please, just a little one, to rise those numbers in blue.**

**Thanks for reading and hoped you enjoyed it.**

**Peace.**


	3. Diverge

**Replay**

"How can a male become the caretaker of a Girl's Dormitory?" As it was expected from her, Motoko didn't take the notice Haruka had delivered all that well. Both she and Naru had been against the idea, though the later was much less convicted to it than the former. Far from worse, Shinobu admitted; at least this time she wasn't chasing him with a drawn katana nor were the other girls joining in.

Kitsune had no problems with the man as a manager. He was a sweet boy; as she had seen for herself the last days; but a bit naive. If he became the caretaker she would be able to flirt her way out of the occasional payment and chores. Even more reason for Keitaro to stay was her ongoing interest in the crush a certain cook had for the man.

Su was just being Su, happy to have a new playmate around other than Shinobu and, occasionally, Motoko.

"It was an order from Granny herself, there's nothing we can do about it." Haruka explained calmly, having foreseen the opposition from the kendoist yet glad it had not escalated to worse given her distaste for men.

"I know but… but… b-but…" Motoko tried to continue her protests yet found herself unable to. Her eyebrow twitched in exasperation as she tried to ignore a certain pair, to no avail. "… but… but… bu-Stop it Shinobu-Chan!" She finally gave in to irritation and turned an annoyed gaze to the bluenette.

"_Use Moe factor, use Moe factor, use Moe factor."_ Shinobu kept reciting her mantra inside her mind while she focused on her task. Mimicking her actions three days ago, she was knelt on the floor with her hands clasped in front of her, cute crying puppy-eyes and even a quivering lip. Her goal was to use her natural adorability to convince Motoko into letting her sempai stay. Besides her, said man mirrored the girl's pleading face.

"But Motoko-Sempai/Aoyama-San…" Both Shinobu and Keitaro said at the same time, making the kendoist's resolve quiver for a minute before she re-steeled herself, even though she deep inside knew it was a lost battle.

"Is there no other way?" Naru, trying to be the one person among them to act as normal and sane as possible under society's standards, asked the brunette woman who continued to stand near the entrance, silently observing the scene.

"Sorry Naru, but no. I told Granny about keitaro and the situation he was currently in, and she decided this was the best solution. Keitaro gets to stay without free-loading, you girls get a new manager and housemate; one which you have already admitted to be able to bear; and I get one weight less from my back. See? Everyone wins."

Naru sweatdropped; to her, it sounded more like Haruka was happier about no longer having to check on the girls rather than those being the orders of Granny Hina, but she had to admit the woman was right. With a sigh of resignation, she addressed her friend. "She has a point there Motoko. Besides, if Granny Hina decided it then we can't go against her wishes."

The kendoist lowered her head in thought; she didn't want to admit but from the beginning she knew her protests were futile. Even so, she didn't want to give the man the impression she was just going to willingly accept his stay. Hopefully, her obvious resistance would warn the male about her stand in the matter. "Fine, I will allow him to stay here at the dormitory if that is what Granny dictates."

With a synchronized "YAY!", both keitaro and Shinobu rose from their kneeled position while throwing their arms up in celebration. "However,-" Continued Motoko. "-if he as much as _thinks_ on satiating his perverted and lewd desires on any on the dorm residents, I won't hesitate to deliver the rightful punishment." To emphasize her threat she slightly drew her katana from its sheet, making it gleam against the sunlight while looking at Keitaro with narrowed eyes.

The man gulped nervously before giving his tenant a thumbs-up "Understood, Aoyama-San."

And with that, Motoko exited the living room towards her quarters, meditation in mind. Seeing the girl leave brought a great deal of relief to Keitaro. She was scary already without carrying that sword around. Why was she even wielding that inside the Inn in the first place? He would ask his aunt latter.

"If everything is resolved then…" Began Haruka, breaking the slightly tense silence that had descended on the room. "…If you would follow me to the Teahouse Keitaro; there are papers and the like I need you to sign. There's also the Tenant Record which you have to see."

The newly appointed manager nodded and followed his aunt outside the dorm, leaving the remaining four tenants to their dealings.

"So." Said Kitsune. "What'cha guys think of our new manager"

Naru was the first to answer, giving a disinterested shrug. "I don't like him staying here, but guess we will just have to go with it." Naru's eyes then narrowed as she shot Keitaro a glare through the closed door. Even at a distance, the Urashima felt a shiver run down his spine. "But if he peeks at me again while I am in the toilet I will kill him." A red aura could be seen beginning to form around the red-head, and being the smart girls they were, the remaining tenants took a step back.

Shinobu hated to admit that, even with her biggest efforts, there was absolutely no way of sparing her Sempai from his uncomfortable and clumsy accidents. If it wasn't one thing, it was the other. It scaled to the point a wood plank he stepped on in the hallway broke and he tripped down the stairs and towards Narusegawa's waiting pair of breasts. It was no overstating or exaggeration to say the entire universe took joy on seeing him receive physical pain.

So even when she had managed to mend Keitaro's 'slightly' disastrous first meeting with the girls, his relation with Naru had once again began on bad terms. _"Well, nothing to worry about. They will patch things up anyway." _With a mental nod and a reassurance to herself that things would play out just fine, Shinobu came back to awareness in time to hear Kitsune address her.

"And what does our girl in love think?" The resident fox had a mischievous smile on her face, moving closer to the girl to see her reaction.

"Huh?" Shinobu was taken off guard by the question. For the past three days no one had interrogated her on the matter of her obvious crush; even when she had been silently waiting for someone to ask her about it, the girls had kept silence. And now, all of a sudden, Kitsune comes and asks that very question when she wasn't expecting it. _"An advantage of seven years' worth of future knowledge and she can still do that to me."_

Mental note: never drop your guard near the ash-haired woman. She can be dangerous.

"Yeah, you like the man, don't you? Shi-no-bu-Chan." Kitsune worded her question playfully, focusing on eliciting a nervous reaction from the bluenette; and succeeding.

Whether it was due to physical memory of her usual behavior, or her own inner jittery, she didn't know, but Shinobu was beginning to sweat while trying to find the words to answer back.

Damn it! She had had a whole speech ready to declare and defend her love when the time came one of the girls' curiosity pushed her to ask. And yet here she was, stuttering a long series of "I-I-I-…I-...I-I-".

"Stop it Kitsune!" Naru scolded her friend, who by this point already had an arm around Shinobu and was looking at her face closely through her squinted eyes. Su was nearby, also wanting to hear what Shinobu had to say and having absolutely no regards for her personal space.

If there was one thing she knew well about love, it was how sensible a girl's feeling could be when on a crush. She had been no different when on her private lessons with Seta. And she also knew that asking about it was not the most helpful thing to do.

"Oh, but you were the one who was wondering about it out loud." Retorted the trickster, causing her friend to start stuttering denials and excuses. Okay, she admitted it, maybe she was a _bit_ curious; but she always made sure Shinobu wasn't around when she commented it to others.

"Naru is a meddler, a meddler." Sang Su as she mockingly danced around an embarrassed Naru.

"You can bet on it, she is quite the busybody." Kitsune agreed.

"I don't want to hear that from you two of all people!" The nerve these two had calling her a meddler; talking about hypocrisy.

"I…" Moments after she had gone silent, Shinobu began talking once more. While she had been saying the same thing over and over for the past seconds, that last 'I' had been a definitive one, meant to tell the girls she was ready to speak.

The three turned to the bluenette. Shinobu had been calming down while Naru was being bothered, and was ready to talk. No use hiding the truth, they already knew. The best she could do; what she _wanted_ to do; was to prove her feelings were wholly heartfelt. That they weren't silly fantasies from a school girl, but mature affection from someone who knew what she was feeling.

Standing straight and looking directly at her friends, Shinobu confessed. "I like Keitaro, I like him a lot." Her voice had been neither too loud nor too low. It had been a perfect tone that was heard clearly inside the silent living room. She didn't mention 'love' because she doubted they would believe she had that level of affection already. Shinobu did, however, call Keitaro by his name to make her point clear.

Seconds ticked in the silent room, Shinobu's words registering in everyone's mind. More seconds passed…

…and Kitsune broke laughing.

"Oh! Shinobu-Chan! You are so adorable!" She launched herself at the girl and locked her in a tight embrace, burying her face in the middle of her 'assets'. For you see, what Shinobu had attempted to show as a mature confession of one's feelings had been the entire opposite.

As it turned out, her young body _did_ have physical memory, but instead of hand-eye reflexes like Motoko had, hers were more among the lines of _'blush and cover'_. And so, when she said what she said, her brain registered it as an embarrassing thing to admit and thus caused the 'appropriate' reactions.

The result: A middle schoolgirl trying to seem brave while blushing cherry-red and trembling in nervousness. No need to be said it was a very cute scene to witness.

And that's why we now find Shinobu desperately trying to breathe while being crushed by a pair of melons. Su joined the fun and hugged the girl from behind at the same time she hopped in celebration.

Naru was at loss of words. She was seriously surprised by what just happened. Yes, the girl had suffered a mood switch for the past three days and become a little less shy, but it still impressed her how much courage she had.

Back at her own middle school days when she was looking at her private tutor Noriyasu Seta with starry eyes Kitsune had asked that very same question several times. She always answered with the negative, partly because it was an embarrassing thing to admit and partly because you would have to be blind to not see the obvious truth.

And now, Shinobu of all people; the girl who had blushed as hard as the northern lights when she discovered just from where babies came from; had been honest about it from the beginning. After witnessing her confession, the red head was entirely convinced that she had really fallen for the guy, _hard_.

"Mnffufe! In manf beefh!" Or something similar was pronounced by Shinobu as she begged with flailing arms to be allowed to breathe once more.

"Yosh! It's decided then!" Kitsune finally released the bluenette girl as she raised an arm determinately to the heavens above. "We will make you conquer that man!"

"You will what?"

"We will what?"

Both Naru and Shinobu paused their trains of thought to turn questioningly at the woman.

"What you heard! It's our obligation as your friends and comrades in love to support you in this time of need." The ash-haired woman declared passionately.

"That's not true; you just want to meddle in my private life." The lovesick girl said dryly; Naru besides her nodded in agreement.

As it was expected, the trickster completely ignored the statement and instead put her plan in action. "Su-chan! Get Shinobu-chan to my room so that we can begin 'Operation: cupid'!"

"Roger!"

"What?-no, wait, SU!" The Molmolense went for the girl's legs, grabbing them firmly and beginning to drag her upstairs. Kitsune walked ahead of them.

"We will begin by dressing her in some cute outfits. I have some sexy lingerie in my room she can try on." Already inside her mind the resident fox was mentally stripping Shinobu and forcing her into different outfits that either bordered or went beyond the indecent.

Not all that different from the near future.

"Wait girls! Stop it! Let me go! Naru-sempai, HELP MEEEEEEE…!" despite her protests the bluenette was dragged upstairs against her will, leaving a lone Naru behind at the living room.

The girl remained silent while the scene just now registered in her mind, and then she smiled softly. _"When did she grow up so much?"_ She had always seen the little cook as a sort of younger sister. It gave her quite a bit of melancholy seeing her already dealing with things as complicated as love.

Kami, she felt like an old woman thinking like that.

Naru decided right there and then she would help Shinobu. Love was a hard thing to face, but it was easier when one had friends for support. When Seta had gone away without saying good-bye and left her with a broken heart she had Kitsune's shoulder to cry on. She wanted to do the same for the bluenette. Not only that, but someone had to make sure the man didn't try anything weird on her.

Nodding to herself the student began walking upstairs towards the fox's room. Wait, did she say sexy lingerie? "Oh no you won't… Kitsune! Come back here, let her go!"

**DIVISION**

"Well, got to say that didn't go as we planned." Admitted Mitsune Konno as she entered the hotsprings. Towel in hand she submerged in the warm water.

"Oh, you think?" Naru's voice dripped with sarcasm. She had told her it was a bad idea. But did she hear? No, of course not.

"No more Sake for a week." Came the mutter from inside the waters. In the middle of the hotsprings Shinobu was almost entirely submerged in water, only her head sticking out to glare at the trickster.

What had happened you ask?

After forcedly having gone through a series of clothes, Kitsune had finally settled for a bunny suit she had in storage. It was a one-piece skin-tight suit with a bunny ears hairband included, the sort of outfit waitresses used on cosplay coffees or sleazy bars.

While many would ask why the woman had that stored in her wardrobe, Shinobu thought a better question would be _why_ did have a suit for _her_ size. As she was now, the girl was in the opposite pole of Mitsune when it came to physical measurements. That suit obviously wasn't bought for herself.

But let's go back to the story shall we?

As soon as the Hinata's new manager finished his rounds around the dorm to list everything that had to be repaired and/or replaced, he was confronted with an image of a struggling Shinobu in bunny suit being forced into poses by Su and Kitsune. Naru stood by the sidelines face palming.

Out of politeness he didn't ask about it and instead focused on making sure his nose didn't bleed, particularly because the bunny girl was still in middle school. It wasn't long before Motoko came out from her room after meditating that she joined the scene and rapidly found herself in need of _another_ session. And it was just a matter of time before an argument broke out about what was and wasn't right for a twelve year-old to wear.

Amidst the commotion Shinobu tried several times to escape to no avail. Finally, she decided to talk her way out of the whole thing and, appealing to Su's huge appetite, she excused herself to prepare dinner. She was stopped though by Kaolla herself, who told her there was no need for that since she had just finished constructing her newest invention.

Once again proving to be able to materialize controls out of thin air, the Molmolense pushed a button and the machine came hovering inside the room. It was a simple, metallic sphere the size of a basketball…ball. It had the trinity of eyes printed on the surface as did every single one of Su's machines, and on its sides were connected a pair of robotic arms with gloved hands.

Everyone immediately stepped back warily, knowing all too well how Su's inventions tended to finish: as a giant ball of fire and destruction; Shinobu was personally worried about it, because not only was she in her current situation because of the Mecha Seer but also because it was a robot she had never seen before. And one of the few things scarier than Kaolla's 'toys' were creations you weren't familiar with.

It was just below Kanako, an angry Haruka and Tsukuro in her list of 'Beware and be Afraid'.

The tanned girl proceeded to explain how it was an automatized cooking robot she had made to be her personal chef when Shinobu wasn't around. It had hundreds of recipes in its memory bank, being able to prepare each one of them perfectly. Shinobu was sure half of those recipes included bananas, curry or both.

Pushing a second button the machine got to work on a random dish. It began heating the stove and searching for the ingredients it was going to need. While everyone watched in a mixture of curiosity, amazement and caution, the bluenette attempted to make her escape once more. Unfortunately, Kitsune took notice of it and launched herself at the girl, tackling her to the floor. This caused them to collide with Su who dropped the control she was holding.

Everything went down from there.

The moment it hit the floor the device shattered, causing the Robo-Chef V.01.17 to short circuit. Everyone jumped for cover and waited for the expected explosion to occur. Surprisingly, it didn't. Glancing from below their hiding spots the residents of the dorm saw the machine simply looking around, searching for something.

All the accident seemed to cause was for the planned recipe to be switched for another, and thus the robot was looking for the new ingredients. Can you guess what the main dish was going to be? That's right:

Rabbit.

Spotting Shinobu's bunny ears from behind the table the Robo-Chef immediately took hold of the girl by her outfit and tried to drag her towards a boiling pot of water. Everyone then tried to help the poor girl, and while they managed to prevent the robot from throwing her into the stove its grip proved to be too strong to break.

And then, while Motoko was contemplating using her sword to slice the thing into pieces, the Molmolense invention proceeded to 'peel the skin' off the rabbit. Grabbing firmly into Shinobu's cosplay with both mechanic hands, the machine tore the clothes apart with a strong pull. At that very moment Su managed to finish repairing the control and turn the Robo-Chef off. It dropped dead to the floor, leaving a completely naked Shinobu standing in the kitchen save for the gloves, shoes and hairband from the ruined outfit.

Seconds passed with everyone completely paralyzed until the blood flow was too much for Keitaro's nose to handle and it sprayed out of the nostril. That seemed to put everything into motion as Shinobu finally snapped from her shock, making the girl scream and run for cover.

Motoko and Naru shouted "Don't look!" and in a synchronized motion rocket-launched Keitaro out of the kitchen and into the hotsprings. Su went to check on her broken toy, and Kitsune picked up her tore clothing, internally debating whether the whole situation had ended up better or worse than she expected it to.

And that's how we find the woman at the hotsprings being glared down by Shinobu while Su swam around said girl, begging to be forgiven. "Please! Shinobu! Don't forbid bananas for Su, Pleeease!" The punishment had been 'Zero Bananas' for a week, and it only applied to Su. Which meant Shinobu hid the whole lot of them away in a secret location she knew Kaolla hadn't discovered yet but allowed anyone else to eat them. In fact, before entering the bath she had unashamedly eaten one in front of her while the girl drooled.

"Let's just live with it Su, it's what we deserve and it's only for a week." Kitsune accepted her punishment willingly, knowing that Shinobu deserved to get her payback.

"And that includes the secret stash you have hidden in the Teahouse." Shinobu added to the sentence.

"How do you know about that!" The moment the last word left the cook's lips the trickster snapped her head around, going from an accepting attitude to a shocked one. The girl simply continued glaring in turn, the phrase 'It's what you got' written all over her face.

Sighing in resignation, Mitsune made a mental vow of never to mess the same way with the girl. When it came to matters with her crush the bluenette could be quite severe.

"I agree with Shinobu-chan, both of you went too far. Of all things, exposing her in front of that male." Motoko bathed a distance away, voicing her disappointment with the whole ordeal. How was she going to set limits for the new manager if this two kept doing things like this? "What would happen if he came to believe this kind of behavior is acceptable around us? We would have to deal with whatever perversions he thinks of, and worse if he tries them on Shinobu."

Said girl didn't even voice her disagreement. At the moment she was more interested in trying to set the ash-haired woman on fire with her sight than in defending her love. It would be pointless anyway, Motoko was quite stubborn and it would cause more problems than solutions to argue with her at the moment, particularly about her opinion of the opposite sex. She would also, in time, come to accept her Sempai.

She would just have to be patient; and make sure Keitaro didn't make her too mad.

Naru ceased her bath momentarily to glance around the bathing area. Kitsune silently cursing how badly her plan turned out for her, Su depressed and sobbing in the background after not being forgiven, Shinobu uncharacteristically glaring at her best friend and Motoko verbally berating the man.

A shameless trickster, a hyperactive foreign girl, a cook with severe mood-swings in love matters and a man-hating kendoist.

"_Why do I have such a weird group of friends?"_ Probably because she was weird in her own way too, but she paid that particular thought no mind and went back to her bath.

And so, the evening bath continued uneventfully, the newly appointed manager listening to the conversations from his own bathing area.

**DIVISION**

"Wow, I never thought this problem would be so easy. Now I feel kind of dumb for not being able to do it myself." Admitted Urashima Keitaro as he rubbed the back of his head as was his habit. He was seated on a table inside Haruka's empty Teahouse, his studying material piled in front of him. On the opposite side of the table Naru returned his comment with the dry look she usually had during study sessions, this one however had a shadow of irritation. She had been just about to voice her agreement with that last statement but kept silence out of respect.

It had become more and more difficult to act civil with the man over the few days he had lived as the manager of the Hinata. The only reason she kept her politeness was because, while the man himself was a bit annoying and irritating, the current cause of her foul mood wasn't his fault.

It was the girls'.

And it certainly didn't help Keitaro was completely oblivious of the current situation at the dormitory.

"Sure, now try doing the next one yourself, okay?" Better not get angry if there wasn't any use. Out of respect for Shinobu's own feelings she wouldn't give in to the urge of coming face-to-face with him and yelling the density out of that brain of his.

"Okay. Trigonometry, here I come!" He yelled enthusiastically, punching the air with his fist. Keitaro's eyes fell back to the book page, scanning the problem he had to resolve while at the same time racking his brain for the correct formulas. He had been supported too much by Naru, and if he was to enter Tokyo U, he had to do this himself.

That mentality lasted around ten seconds.

"I don't get it." The Ronnin admitted with a tone of frustration.

Naru face didn't physically react to that; to any onlooker it would appear a perfectly normal, focused face of a student. Beneath the table however, her hand was gripping the table's leg with nearly enough force to begin cracking it. She was just a few more strokes from snapping; Keitaro of course didn't notice, Haruka did.

"Listen." Naru replied after taking a deep breath and mentally counting up to number 10. "If you keep depending on me to make the exercises, you won't be able to do anything when the exam comes."

"I know but, it's just so hard." Keitaro excused himself, sounding like a scolded kid.

"Trigonometry is all about learning the correct formulas, so if you can't do the whole thing divide it by parts, resolve what you can and I will help you from there."

"But..." Before keitaro could finish talking, the red-head shot him a glare that left him no room for discussion if he wanted to conserve all his limbs. Unneeded to say he complied willingly enough.

Making sure he wasn't going to bother her for at least the next ten minutes, the red-head went back to her own studies, trying to make up for the time lost helping a certain _someone_. Eventually, both finished their math guides with different levels of satisfaction and decided that a rest was in order before continuing with the still long pile of work.

"Here." Said Haruka as she returned from the front part of the teahouse with a pair of steaming cups. She laid them down in front of the students, receiving a mutual 'thank you' from them. "And _this_ is for you." Pulling out a small notebook from the back of her apron the woman held it up for Keitaro to take.

"Huh? What is it?" The manager took the notebook from her hand and opened, flipping through the few pages it had.

"The Boarder Information. You need it if you will be the manager won't you?"

"I see, thanks Aunt Haruk-"

"That's Haruka for you." Before Keitaro could blink a paper fan had struck his head, hurting a bit more than it seemed.

"Thank you Haruka." He corrected while rubbing his damaged skull. Why was he being punished for it anyway? She was the one who insisted on him calling her 'Aunt' when they were children; habits were bad for him to break.

Reading through the tenant files while giving sips to his tea, Keitaro eventually stopped on one particular profile. "Say Narusegawa, don't you think Motoko has been acting strange lately?"

Said girl had been sipping of her own cup when the question came and she silently choked up on the tea, suppressing the urge to shout 'Hallelujah!' to the four winds. "Yes…*cough* yes I have."

"Naru! Are you okay?"

"I´m fine. What were you saying?"

"About Motoko, she has been more…" Keitaro couldn't quite find a polite way to describe her attitude.

"Aggressive?" Haruka suggested from her spot besides the table. She had been piecing together the way she saw Naru behave with what her nephew had said and had a good idea where it was leading.

"Kind of…" The man admitted. He still shivered slightly when he remembered last night's dinner. At the beginning, the kendoist had been a little less than friendly, liking to make clear the fact that if he didn't behave she would use force; shaped as a katana; to throw him out. Intimidating? Yes; truly menacing? Not so much.

Recently however…

"Do you think it was for something I did?" Keitaro asked himself more than to his aunt; on the opposite side of the table Naru once more restrained from yelling 'YES!'.

That small fact, like the previous ones, didn't escape Haruka´s notice. Deciding a couple of questions were in order later on, she turned towards the Ronnin. "Motoko-chan has always had an aversion towards men. Don't put much thought into it; she is probably still upset for your presence."

"Yeah, it's probably that." The Ronnin half-agreed, not entirely convincing himself and others even less. He couldn't decide if it was better that Haruka's assumption was true or not. On one part, it meant it really wasn't his fault; on the other, it spoke of a really _big _aversion towards his gender. Lately she hadn't been rude to him, heck not even impolite. To anyone it would seem she was perfectly fine, but at times, when the two of them made eye contact…

"_Cold."_

That was the only way he could describe the way she glared at him. It was as if Keitaro was a parasite that ought to be eliminated. Whenever Motoko looked at him that way during the few occasions they interacted, cold sweat would form on his forehead. Before the man caused her simple irritation, but now Keitaro could state with complete confidence that she truly _hated_ him.

Reason why, he wasn't fully convinced by the idea he hadn't done anything to provoke her.

"Keitaro, I was meaning to ask…" Began Naru, breaking the uncomfortable silence in the air. She had sworn not to directly tell the man, but he was finally catching up and if she could just tip him a bit towards the correct train of thought maybe this whole drama would be put an end. "What do you think of Shinobu?" The red-head asked with utter seriousness.

"She is a really nice girl and a fantastic cook." He flipped the book to the last page, reaching the bluenette´s profile which was the most recent one. "If it wasn't for her I would have had to go back to my folks." Keitaro couldn't begin to describe how thankful he was to the girl. He now had a place to stay, a job and a student partner (more like a tutor) all thanks to Shinobu.

The man kept staring at her profile picture, thinking on something recently. "Now that I think about it, she has also been acting strange hasn't she?"

"Mm-hm." Responded Naru, nodding with a face full of anticipation. _"You are almost there."_

"I wonder why." He rubbed his chin a bit, before reaching for his tea and drinking while he continued to read.

"_Just a bit more." _

Keitaro kept reading, and all of a sudden his eyes snapped open in shock; he had realized something.

Naru saw this and felt like celebrating. _"Finally…!"_

Until he, in his surprise, spitted all the tea inside his mouth in the red-head´s face. "Oh crap! Sorry Narusegawa, but I have to go find Shinobu!" Leaving all his stuff behind as well as a trembling Naru, he dashed out of the teashop and towards the dormitory, intent on finding the girl.

Haruka simply raised an eyebrow at her nephew's sudden outburst. _"What was that?" _Turning to the student sitting nearby, she saw her exuding an aura of immense anger.

Nearby animals fled away to safety.

"That…that…THAT IDIOT!" In her rage, Naru delivered a punch to the table, managing to crack the surface. Haruka remained serene even as she saw the damage to her property; she kind of understood the girl after all. Much like Keitaro just now, Seta wasn't what you would call a sensible person back at their adventuring days together.

She highly doubted that changed during the years.

"You do know you are going to pay for that, right?" The woman asked as she took seat on Keitaro's unoccupied chair. Pulling out a cigarette and a lighter, she began to smoke.

"I don't care!"

Haruka shrugged; neither did she. "So, are you going to tell me what has you gritting your teeth or will I have to guess?"

Naru composed herself slightly as she thought of the answer. She could say that it was due to Keitaro, and it was, but that wasn't the entire truth. Glancing at the patient woman, she decided this was a time as good as any to finally talk about the whole thing with someone. "Well, have you noticed how Shinobu is…?" She left the rest hanging to see if the woman knew.

She did. "In love with my nephew? Yeah, I know. It takes a very special type of person to _not_ see it."

Naru raised an eyebrow. "You _do_ know that your nephew doesn't-"

"A very special type of person." It was a good excuse, one easily understood by both females. Indeed, you wouldn't find many like Keitaro out there. "So?" She prodded the girl to continue.

"What happened was that, a couple of days ago, Kitsune asked Shinobu about it as a tease. And surprisingly, she answered honestly." Naru paused to give Haruka time to process the information.

The woman had her eyes slightly more open, the closest Naru had seen her to a surprised expression. "She was?" It wasn't that Haruka considered Shinobu a coward, but the girl could be…

Sensitive; yeah, let's go with that.

…sensitive with touchy themes like love. She found it a bit hard to picture the bluenette she knew and cared about coming clean with her feelings, especially if teased by their resident trickster.

"Yes. The thing is that when she confessed it the only one who wasn't present was Motoko."

"Let me guess, she found out in a less pleasant way." At Haruka´s guess Naru nodded, confirming her suspicions. It made sense now: Motoko had an aversion to men; Shinobu was a precious friend to her, so when she showed affection for Keitaro it must have upset the kendoist greatly. Still, she felt there was more to that…

"It happened while Keitaro and I were at the cram school. The girls came back from school and Kitsune wanted to take advantage that Keitaro wasn't around to keep questioning Shinobu about her feelings. You know, to come up with more of those dumb plans of hers." The red-head hopped her friend would calm down on those schemes; Shinobu´s punishment was making its magic, and the more shameless plans had been abandoned but Kitsune refused to leave her campaign of meddling.

"From what Kitsune told me, the first thing Motoko tried to do was to go find Keitaro and 'have a talk' for seducing Shinobu. And I don't know what exactly happened, but it seems she got into an argument with Shinobu-chan over the matter." Naru explained, relating the events from the fox´s point of view of the scene.

The fight had scaled to a shouting level, plenty of them surprisingly coming from the bluenette schoolgirl. Motoko argued how she had reminded the girl over and over how men were, how lustful and lewd they could be, and yet she had ignored her advice. Shinobu in turn defended her right to feel how she did, telling the kendoist not to blame her for whatever issues she had with her sister.

Tsukuro being the sore topic she was for Motoko, the discussion was called quits immediately after. Ever since then both girls had been at odds with each other.

Haruka gave a mental sigh as she put her cup down, tasting the warm tea in her mouth. "I see." It all made sense now. From Motoko's point of view it was something like: Keitaro wasn't around, everything was alright; Keitaro arrives, Shinobu falls in love and changes, in the kendoist's opinion probably for the worse. The result: her desire to gut her nephew where he stood. "Troublesome girls."

"Yeah. I swear the temperature drops below zero every time those two are in the same room now. It's…" Naru lowered her own cup bitterly. The girls had always been some sort of little family, their own personal problems uniting them as friends, always looking out for each other.

Naru tutoring Shinobu at her school work; Motoko defending the younger tenants from bullies of any sort; Kitsune supporting her on the matter of love with Seta; Shinobu looking after their well-being; and Su… being Su, the cheerful girl that loved everyone and, if not everything, a great deal of things.

And now it was all falling apart, their way of life.

And guess who the cause was.

"Unbearable?" The woman suggested.

"No, but it's steadily getting there. Especially with Keitaro being the idiot he is, spitting in my face." Naru was going to punch the man so hard the next she saw him he would land in the middle of China.

"But can you really blame him?"

"Of course! Didn't you see how he out of nowhere blew all of his hot stuff on my…!"

"Yes, _that_ was his fault but it isn't what I meant." Haruka stopped the girl's rant before it got out of control and gave others the wrong idea. The red-head´s patience was so short it was a miracle she hadn't chased after the man. It only served as testimony of how much the fight between Shinobu and Motoko was affecting her. "What I meant was that if you could really blame him for making Shinobu-chan fall for him. As far as I know he has only been himself."

"And that's what I hate." Keitaro was the cause, but he wasn't the guilty.

Haruka understood; as things were Naru couldn't lash out at her nephew. Shinobu probably wouldn't forgive her if she blew out her secret. And the last thing they needed was more arguments. "If it helps to know, I´m sure everything will be fixed."

"You are?" The way Naru saw it; it seemed as the beginning of the end.

"Yes. Sooner or later Motoko-chan will enter in reason, though I don't know how long it will take." Things wouldn't stay like this, in time someone would snap and it was going to be the kendoist. Keitaro was oblivious to the whole thing and Shinobu was on the right by feeling like she did, thus the one left was Motoko. She just hoped no blood was spilled.

Oh, who was she kidding? Blood _was_ going to be spilled, and it would most likely be her nephew's.

"I hope you are right." She really did, anything was better than this.

"Anyway, what do you think made Keitaro panic like that?" In an attempt to lift the mood Haruka switched the theme of conversation, despite the anger the student in front of her was likely to feel.

"Who knows? He probably left his porn magazines open in his room and is afraid Su finds them." And she wasn't just saying it without any ground; that had actually happened already.

"He was reading the boarder information I gave him right? Something happened with any of the girls?" Haruka asked.

"Besides what we already talked about? Not that I know."

"He was reading Shinobu's profile. You think he managed to realize her feelings for him?"

"I had my hopes, but I doubt it being how he is." Naru took another sip of her tea. Did something happen with Shinobu that she didn't know? Probably, but what?

It was just then, about to take a prolonged gulp of the warm liquid, that Naru remembered just what day yesterday had been, and just who had turned thirteen.

"Oh crap! Sorry Haruka but I have to go!" Leaving her study material behind Naru dashed towards the dormitory. She had less than an hour before Shinobu came back from her shopping trip to gather the tenants, get a cake, decorate the living room and give her friend the best time of her life.

No wonder she had been acting so strange lately, she was just about to enter puberty. No, that was wrong, she already _had_ entered puberty yesterday and everyone forgot. Even with the risks involved she was going to ask Su for help with her androids; it was the only way to finish setting everything up in time.

Naru would have done just that, had she not been stopped by a hand gripping her arm with great force. "I don't know what just happened, but you _are_ paying for this."

Fearfully turning around, the red-head now saw a mad Haruka, hot tea all over her face. In a shocked fashion and in perfect imitation of Keitaro, Naru had spitted all her tea on the brunette woman's face.

"I-I-I-…I-...I-I-". She just dug her own tomb, didn't she?

Outside the Teahouse the animals which had previously fled came back, thinking the danger had passed. They were proven wrong when screams of pain and begs for mercy erupted from the seemingly cozy building.

Once again the creatures fled to safety.

**DIVISION**

"_I ought to get better friends."_ Thought Shinobu Maehara as she strolled down the streets of the Hinata town, shopping bags in hand. Today her mood was rather cranky as proved by the unfitting dark aura forming around her body. The girl had temporally forgotten that her actual body was much smaller and weaker than her future one, and thus the bags she was carrying were a little too heavy for her.

Oh yeah, and let's not forget her fight with Motoko.

No matter how angry Shinobu was towards her at the moment, the girl had to admit it was her fault things had gone south. Tsukuro was a sensible topic for the kendoist, especially at such an early time. On top of it, Motoko's family issues weren't supposed to be known by others yet, and that made her look as if she had been meddling in the kendoist's private life. She should have known better, but the cook had underestimated her friend's sudden reaction; guess it was fitting due to her just-as-'sudden' change.

And as if all that wasn't bad enough already everyone had forgot her birthday, again.

Okay, maybe she knew it was going to happen, but she still waited yesterday night for hours out at the balcony waiting for her surprise party, which never came. Somehow, her actions earlier in the timeline caused Keitaro to _not_ know about the special date, probably because in this world he never had to try to mend things up with her.

And yet, as much as Shinobu was mad at the girls for everything just mentioned, the entire fault fell on her shoulders. _She_ was the one to mess with time; _she_ was the one who tried to alter the world, and the world was fighting back. Her first mayor alteration to the timeline was a success, but the second was a complete disaster.

Had she even accomplished anything worthy by revealing her feelings so early? Kitsune and Su didn't take her seriously, Keitaro still didn't notice anything, Motoko had urges to kill her sempai and Naru…

"_It's inevitable." _She knew it. Narusegawa may have been the only one to openly support her, offering her help with the mess about the bunny cosplay even though it didn't accomplish anything. But it the end, the red-head would ultimately fall in love with keitaro, and vice-versa. Shinobu couldn't stop it from happening. How can you stop love, when the people who fell for the other continue being the same even in another world?

They would continue to study, they would pass through whatever experiences they had before, and they would fall in love; and then Naru wouldn't be as supportive as she was now. That was the reason she did what she did, the reason the bluenette had come clean so early. To make the others know she was in the game, that she could play it as well as anyone else, that she wanted to be taken into account as well; to take action instead of remaining at the sidelines.

"_And here I am, alone instead of in the company of my friends." _

Shinobu spotted an empty bench at the park and decided to sit there for some time; she didn't want to face the others just yet. Seated there, all alone, the girl finally felt the enormity of what she was doing; the weight of the future. And the pain of what she had lost.

She felt alien in this world, as if those living at the Hinata weren't her friends, as if the body she had wasn't hers. It had taken her years to come out of her shy self, to open to others, and she did so along people who supported her. And now here she was, surrounded by the same people yet these ones hadn't accepted her change, they weren't used to this new attitude of hers.

It was a point of no return; so focused had she been on her goal, on the possible romance with Keitaro and the wedding back at her world with Naru, that she didn't realize what she had lost until now. Things weren't going to be the same; everything she was used to, everything she grew up with was gone now, reset. It felt as if all her effort had gone to waste, as if she had accomplished nothing.

As if no matter what actions she took, the end wasn't going to change; that this was going to be an enormous loss of time.

Knowledge of the future, that was her advantage; yet, the more Shinobu diverged the timelines the less sure she was on where she was going. Never on her previous life had the cook been so afraid of the uncertain future, so scared of what was going to come.

Scared that she was going to fail.

Scared that there might be more to the time travel than what she knew.

Scared that, in the end, Keitaro would leave her all alone again.

It was here, while our little protagonist fretted over her own doubts, that the divergent timeline finally gave its fruits. "Shinobu!" It was a faint, distant call, yet loud enough to snap Shinobu out of her Emo feelings.

There, running towards her position, was no other than Urashima Keitaro. "Sempai?" Said man arrived shortly after, panting to catch his breath after running half an hour straight looking all around for Shinobu.

"Shi *pant* nobu *pant* chan. I finally *pant* found you." Kami did the Ronnin needed to make more exercise. Worriedly looking at the exhausted man Shinobu took his arm and made him seat on the bench.

"Are you okay sempai?" Shinobu asked as she wiped most of the sweat out of Keitaro's face with a napkin she had bought. She reached into her bag and took out a bottle of water, offering it to the man.

"Yes, thank you." Two, three big gulps and Keitaro was okay again. God bless his physical immortality.

"Is something the matter? Why did you come running all the way here?" It wasn't that Shinobu was nervous…okay, yes she was nervous; last time she exchanged words with her sempai it had been before her involuntary strip tease show.

"Because, Shinobu-chan, I have something very important to tell you." Keitaro grabbed the bluenette by the shoulders, nearing her towards his face. His expression was completely serious, making the cook blush at how close she was from it. Then, giving her a warm smile, he said: "Happy Birthday Shinobu-chan."

And again Shinobu had been taken by surprise by something she had been expecting. Yet this time she didn't sputter. No, what she did was respond with a smile of her own, tears of joy threatening to fall from her eyes. Finally; after so many bad events, finally something happened that remind Shinobu that, just as she could fail in her mission, she could succeed. There was still hope things would turn out okay.

Completely uncaring of what would be socially acceptable, Shinobu hugged Keitaro, burying her face on his chest. Normally the man would have been nervous, but after seeing the relief on the girl's face; relief that her birthday hadn't been completely forgotten; he happily hugged her back, letting her express her joy. As much as she wanted to, Shinobu held the urge to cry; it wouldn't do at the moment.

"Sorry for being late." Keitaro apologized.

Still from her sport on his shirt, the bluenette shook her head. "it's okay, I'm not mad." Finally releasing her crush from her embrace, Shinobu locked eyes with the man all the while both continued to smile warmly. "Thank you Sempai."

"You're welcome, Shinobu-chan."

Silence remained for some time, until finally the man broke it. Things hadn't ended just yet. "Come Shinobu-chan, let's get you a present." Keitaro stood up from the bench, offering his hand to the girl and the other for the bags.

Shinobu accepted them gladly, yet didn't move from her place. "Thanks sempai but it's okay, I don't need any gift." He had just given her the best present he could: hope.

It was Keitaro's turn to shake his head. "A birthday isn't a birthday without a present and a cake. Narusegawa is already baking it at the dormitory, so that leaves me free for the present." The man was glad his study partner had remembered as well and offered her help, even after she punched him square in the face the moment they met. But that was his fault, he should have at least apologized for spitting in her face.

"No really, I don't want anything." Shinobu was past that age, emotionally. And while that was a lie, the thing that she _did_ want was in front of her.

"I will get you a gift, want it or not." There was no other option.

Shinobu sighed; guess she would have to think up something. Looking around for anything that would make for a present; something cheap for Keitaro's wallet yet still a nice detail; the girl spotted just what she needed. "In that case, I want that."

Following the direction she was pointing at, Keitaro's gaze fell on a very familiar object to him. "The photo booth?" He turned to the girl. "You want a photo?"

"Yes, to commemorate the occasion. That's what I want." She answered with a smile.

Keitaro returned it. "Okay then."

Walking a couple of meters they both arrived at the photo booth, finding it free for usage. "What frame do you want to use?" The Ronnin asked Shinobu.

"You can choose, anything would be alright."

The man opted for a hotsprings type of frame; partly because the Hinata had hotsprings and partly because it was a new one to him. Stepping into the booth, Shinobu patted the place next to her. "Come sempai." Keitaro thought about it for a moment, this was his first photo with a girl in fifteen years right? Even with a middle schooler, he was nervous. Telling himself it would be rude to decline the invitation, and that it was his chance of breaking his solo-picture combo, the man complied.

The camera flashed several times, taking multiple pictures; yet the only thing the two of them did was smile. It felt nice like that anyway, being next to each other, smiling.

Time passed, both Keitaro and Shinobu walking around the town to give Naru time to finish the preparations. Once they decided it was time to go back, both of them returned to the dormitory, prepared for the celebration to come.

And through it all, Shinobu simply talked comfortably with Keitaro, being allowed to forget about all her troubles at least for one afternoon. All those daunting feelings, all those uncertainties and doubts; none of that mattered to the girl, all she cared about at the moment was to be able to walk besides the man she loved.

And so the evening passed, and we find the girl climbing the long flight of stairs towards her residence. She continued to chat with the person besides her, convinced that, without a doubt, this had been her best birthday ever.

And so Shinobu continued to walk, oblivious to just how much she had affected the world.

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><p><strong>AN: Wow, feels like forever since my last update. I apologize for that; it was in part because of those damn exams, and part because of my tremendously powerful abilities of procastination. Anyway, hoped you enjoyed the chapter; I'm trying to mantain the girls and Keitaro in character, all except Shinobu of course. I will take some liberties with her since not much of her personality was seen in the epilogue. As for the others: I tried to give plenty of reasons during the story, but if someone thinks one of them was acting OC during a certain event, feel free to tell me.<strong>

**Thanks to those that reviewed last chapter, I will try to upload faster than now. Hoped you enjoyed reading the chapter. Please review and see you next time okay?**

**Peace.**

**PS: In case someone tries anything because of it, the disclaimer is on the previous chapters. It still aplies to this one.**


	4. Arrive

**AN: Hello everyone! It has been quite some time, hasn't it? I am deeply sorry for delaying the chapter for so long. I don't know how many of you were left waiting (Because for some reason the mails stopped coming to my Hotmail account) but all of you have my deepest apologies.**

**I tried to work faster on the chapter but... well, a lot of shit happened in my life and I didn't feel like writing anything. Now things are kind of fixing up a bit, so I finished it after months.**

**Once again, sorry.**

**But it's finally here and, if there is someone left who wants to read it, be my guest.**

**Hope you enjoy the chapter, and please review. And also, if you can, could you tell me what happened to the page's link to Hotmail? Everytime I got a review or Stroy Alert I got a mail about it on my E-Mail account, but they stopped coming a couple of months ago. Do you know what happened?**

**Well, anyways, on to the chapter. read, enjoy and no, I am not the owner that should be pretty clear by this point.**

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><p>Have you ever been at odds with a friend? You sure have, for there can be no true friendship without the occasional dispute. And while hopefully you may have managed to end the fights without ending your friendship, you must surely know how awkward it can be being near said friend during this period of turbulence.<p>

Shinobu sure did.

After getting her birthday present (Which she kept insisting was more than enough despite Keitaro's persisting inquires) her Sempai had her walking for hours around the Hinata Town for the sake of "getting fresh air". Of course, the cook knew he was just trying to buy time for the girls to finish setting up the party; not that she cared mind you. She was alone with her Sempai walking around town and going anywhere Keitaro thought could give him even the fewest of minutes. All in all, Shinobu was fondly regarding it like a date. One in which only she was thinking that way but hey, she was allowed to have her fantasies, right?

Eventually though, the inevitable call reached Keitaro's phone way after noon to inform him that preparations had been finished. And while Shinobu would have wanted to spend some more time alone (Because she knew Kitsune would ask her about it and the more she procrastinated the better) the idea of a birthday party, late as it may be, wasn't unwelcome to her.

Of course, in her excitement, Shinobu forgot entirely about her issue with the kendoist, and it wasn't until she opened the dorm's front door to receive a group "Happy Birthday Shinobu-Chan!" from her fellow tenants plus Haruka, that she did remember it.

But what could she do? The wounds were still fresh, inflicted less than a day ago, and with the very cause of their quarrel present (And having been alone with her for hours) any casual conversation would invariably lead to a blood bath; made entirely from Keitaro's blood.

Shinobu could, of course, simply tell her to go away; but since her current objective was to salvage her relationship with Motoko with the least amount of blood spilling possible, telling her to "Stay in your room while we party for hours without you" would be quite contradicting with her goals.

So like the saying went: "When in Rome do as the romans do", she decided to follow Keitaro's example and share his stand in the matter.

Complete (And feigned) obliviousness.

It was bliss anyway, wasn't it?

She didn't ignore Motoko, nor directly talk to her; she simply began celebrating as if nothing had happened and, should any dialogue between them start, she could only hope it wouldn't get ugly.

And thus, on this 16th of November, the residents of the Hinata partied to their heart's content.

At least, most of them did.

Aoyama Motoko had a hard time getting cheery. Not that she was having a bad time…

Okay, a _not too bad_ time.

…but she knew that any attempt to interact with the Birthday girl or their Caretaker would spoil her mood further; and the others' as well.

It wasn't that she had been really angry at Shinobu, it was just-How had she known?

The issues with her sister were a total secret ever since her arrival to Tokyo to everyone, save three people: Granny, Haruka and herself.

Granny hadn't been here for a while, and Motoko had complete confidence in the kind and wise old woman. She would never spill her secret after she promised not to, and would have come forth had she done so. Haruka, someone the kendoist regarded as an admirable woman, may be blood-related to Urashima, but she wouldn't do such a thing without a good reason; and as far as she was aware there wasn't. And finally, Motoko was pretty damn sure she hadn't mentioned even once since then. It was a sour happening that had taken place years ago and Motoko never thought too much of it: she didn't talk about it unless necessary, she didn't write about it; all for the sake of not having to deal with it.

Until now.

The girl took the time to close her eyes and breathe deeply. It was hard for her to deal with the memory. But that took her back to the original question. How had Shinobu known?

There was only one logical reason.

Shaking with fury, Motoko fixated Keitaro's back with what undoubtedly was her most scornful glare ever since Tsukuro's wedding day. Aware of the shiver running down his spine, Keitaro cautiously turned to look at his tenant for one second.

One second in which he almost wetted himself.

Before anyone could notice his reaction and inquire, Keitaro turned back to the singing Kitsune, telling himself that no, Motoko's hand wasn't inching towards her sword nor were her eyes burning with the fires of the Abyss itself. It was better for his sanity that way.

But it had to be him right? How else could she have known? As the Manager, Urashima obviously had access to the personal information of each of the tenants, and no doubt went through them the moment Haruka handed him the papers. That's how he learned about it. That's why Shinobu knew.

A _male_ managing an all-girls dorm; Motoko should have known better than to let herself be convinced by Shinobu's pleas. Not even two damn weeks on the job and he was already messing with things; he had been doing so even before he arrived here!

Whatever had happened on his meeting with Shinobu all that time ago, it was something that left a massive impact on the bluenette's life. Massive enough that his mere presence morphed from the girl from a sweet and polite schoolgirl to someone who used family issues to keep others from menacing the man. Worst thing was that it was working!

Motoko had her reserves about interacting with Shinobu while things were like they were, and she didn't dare to reply to Urashima in any way. Because despite her poor choices lately, the kendoist appreciated Shinobu's friendship and doing so would only strain her relation with the little cook even more.

And HE knew it.

He was no man, but a demon in disguise. A demon with the sole purpose of defiling the Hinata and its residents. A demon that had no reserves about taking advantage of a maiden's heart. Motoko had allowed herself to be fooled, thinking of him as a pathetic male but not as a threat, and now that she realized her mistake his play was already in motion. Urashima had already succeeded in being accepted by everyone else as the new Manager by manipulating Shinobu, and was also keeping Motoko at line.

Practically, the only reason he was here in the first place was because Shinobu vouched for him, and now she saw it was all part of his strategy. Shinobu gets him a chance to stay, he becomes Manager, he then wins the acceptance of the others with the bluenette's help and uses emotional turmoil to counter Motoko's righteous nature.

And it wasn't like she could simply throw him out. Consequences with Shinobu aside that would mean going against Granny's wishes, something the kendoist didn't dare try. Besides there was no evidence of his actions, sly as they were, and whenever he did something of importance it had either been an "accident" or she wasn't present.

Of course there was also the issue of her being the only one in this stand. Everyone else still had to realize Urashima's intentions and were unlikely to do so. Kitsune of course saw amusement potential in the man's stay, while Su simply loved having more company. Shinobu was completely blinded by her feelings, and even Naru; the one girl who shared most of her views of men; refused to put a stop to it because she apparently saw a part of herself within Shinobu.

And how could she blame her, when Motoko felt the same way?

The bluenette had always been like a little sister to her, protecting her from bullies and giving her advice. Motoko liked to think of her as her protégé, partly because she saw a young version of herself in Shinobu. A young girl, too naïve to realize just how bad things could get until a man came and forced her older sister, and role model, to abandon the art she loved.

And with everything that had happened recently, the kendoist felt the betrayal of a mother who had given her best to raise a child only for her to come back one night drunk and pregnant. It was like taking all the photos you had with your grandma, pasting them together with melted cheese, scribbling on them and slapping the whole thing down on the old woman's face; emotional overkill.

But that was the very reason why she just couldn't stand there and do nothing. For now she had no plan, and all she could do was wait and hope to be there whenever he tried something; to make matters worse there was a kendo training camp coming up soon and Motoko wouldn't be here at the time.

She dreaded thinking the ways Urashima could take advantage of that.

Motoko specially feared for Su. She couldn't sleep by herself, and was sure to seek a new sleeping partner AKA pillow AKA real life-sized teddy bear after her departure. Shinobu was Su's best friend, and if the manager realized these two facts and the possibilities they entailed…

The kendoist could only pray Naru would intervene in time. For now though, there was nothing to be done; at least, not on Shinobu's party.

Glancing at the group, Motoko witnessed as Keitaro was forced to go to the front and sing in the Karaoke. Apparently he had made the mistake of chuckling on someone's turn (because let's face it, they all sucked singing) and it was now time for revenge.

Whatever. Motoko didn't care what happened to the man at the moment. All she cared about was silently slipping out of the party, go to the roof, and cut some airborne leaves while imagining they had Urashima's face. Kami screw it was raining.

And so she did.

**Division**

Stretching his arms a bit, Keitaro released a tired sigh. After four hours of study, he was feeling he finally understood the Thermodynamic laws. "Really, why does that kendo witch hate me so much?" He complained. And no one could really blame him; as much as he tried ignoring the girl's presence, it was hard not to feel her glares burning on his back.

"She has a name you know. It is Aoyama Motoko." Naru replied irritably. The man was a tolerable company, but hearing his life problems was getting tiring; specially because she simply couldn't shout the truth through that dense head of his.

"Okay then. Why does Aoyama-San hate me so much? Is it something I did?"

Yes, yes it was, but Naru swallowed her desire to shout it. Instead she replied with the second best thing she could. "It's not just you, Haruka already told you; ever since she arrived here she has had an aversion to men. She doesn't like them."

So that was it? She had a hatred for men, and that's why she glared at him with the eyes of a hawk looking down on its prey? "Really? And why is that?"

Had he asked that a week ago, she would have answered she didn't know. Because she didn't one week ago. However, ever since Motoko's and Shinobu's discussion in which the little chef spilled the beans the rest of the tenants learned the story.

Of course, Naru knew better than to anger his friend further, even if it was behind her back. "It's sort of a personal thing, so don't ask. Just try not to do anything to anger her." _"Not more than what you have already done."_

"As if that would help." By now Keitaro was convinced that the simple fact he was _breathing _didn't sit well with Motoko at all. That girl, to put it bluntly, cursed his very existence. "Is it because I am the manager?"

Ah, there he went again. Why did he-Wait a minute! "Yes!" Naru exclaimed enthusiastically, suddenly bolting up from her sitting position and leaning closer to Keitaro, who had fallen back in surprise. "That's it! She doesn't like you being a manager!"

Finally! She had a chance to drop clues to the man without outright telling him.

"Huh…? uh…yeah…" keitaro was at loss as to how respond to that. Naru seemed…happy, for some reason.

"And you know who else Motoko is angry at?" This picked the manager's attention. As far as he knew the kendoist was civil around everyone but him. "Shinobu-Chan!"

"Shi-shinobu?" He had only been living with the girl for two weeks, and yet he found the idea of anyone hating her to be farfetched. Not to mention that he had never seen the two of them argue. "Why?"

"Because Shinobu-Chan wants you to be here while Motoko does not." This made Keitaro think. Shinobu… he _had_ noticed, from the moment he arrived, that the girl was quite friendly with him; incident with the bunny costume aside. And she had also helped him stay here at the Hinata. Had it not been for her asking the girls he would have probably gone back to his parents, which meant no Tokyo U.

But now that he thought about it, he wondered why Shinobu was so supportive of his presence…

"Keitaro." Naru spoke once again in a very serious voice, a total contrast to the hopeful tone she had used earlier. "That time, when you and Shinobu met, what happened?" Shinobu was Naru's friend, a sort of little sister. Ever since their new caretaker arrived she had changed completely, and the red head was sure that Shinobu _seriously_ had something for the man.

She pleaded everyone in the Hinata for his stay, she confessed her feelings for him (to other people), she even stood up to Motoko for him. And it wasn't just the actions, but the fact that this was Shinobu they were speaking up. Until last week, Naru conceived the idea of the bluenette being angry to be beyond logic!

That's why she had to know what this man had done to affect Shinobu in such a manner.

"Well, you see…" Hesitantly, the Ronnin began scratching the back of his head, a habit Naru already identified as him being nervous. "I…we…she…" Even when Shinobu had told him it didn't matter, Keitaro still felt guilty for being unable to remember their first meeting.

"I kind of forgot."

"…"

Silence reigned in the room for what seemed like hours for the man, and seconds for Naru. Had she heard well? "You…forgot?"

"Yes."

"The girl helps you stay here, cooks meals for you, stands up to Motoko for you, all because that meeting was so important to her, and you forgot?"

"Well, when you say it like that it sounds like-" The words died in his throat at what happened next. Keitaro had seen Naru serious, frustrated, frowning, even laughing at the party, but he had never seen her with the expression she now bore.

A smile.

But it wasn't beautiful by any means, nor serene or delicate, or anything a true smile should be. It wasn't forced either, it was a genuine smile. It was the kind of 'You are so impossibly retarded I have the urge to beat the crap out of you'-smile.

Keitaro had only seen it once in his life: shortly after Haruka´s mother's funeral he had tried to cheer her up, and had chosen his words poorly. And that was a memory that shall forever be forgotten.

And now, wanting to avoid reliving the experience, he began to back down slowly, towards the hole that connected to his room. He was closer to it than Naru, and if he dashed for it maybe he could-

Once again he was cut short as his predator finally jumped to action. It was a lost cause, the beast had been readying even before he had sensed danger. Survival of the fittest.

"HOW CAN YOU BE SUCH A FRICKING IDIOT! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA OF THE MESS YOU HAVE CAUSED! ALL BECAUSE OF WHATEVER YOU DID TO HER, AND YOU FORGOT!" Of course Keitaro wasn't listening since he was entirely focused on making sure Naru's choking of his throat didn't throw his eyes out the sockets.

"Grrgl…grrrglrrrr!" The man pleaded to be released, and even if his words were understandable, Naru was having the time of her life. It felt like finally going to the restroom after a five-hour long trip in which you held the urges: an indescribable relief.

Of course, she knew she couldn't kill him. Who else would take care of the Inn? With a sigh, and a mental count to ten, she let Keitaro fall free to the floor.

Oh, didn't I mention it? She somehow managed to drag him to her side of the table by the throat and proceeded to lift him midair. Strong girl.

The Ronnin coughed as the sweet Oxygen filled his lungs and brain, nursing his now sore neck with a small massage. Daring to look up at his assaulter, Keitaro noted that the scowl had not left Naru's face; not a good sign for his health.

Raising her right arm, the red-head pointed towards the door of her room. "Get out!" She no longer could, by any means, bear his presence. This was no longer about the ruckus he caused, but about Shinobu. It was obvious that she treasured her memory with Keitaro, and yet this idiot had forgotten the very reason the bluenette had been acting strange the whole month.

She couldn't take it anymore.

"B-but-"

"I don't care! Go and study by yourself!" Grasping the neck of his shirt, and pulling him closer, Naru glared at him with the intensity of a flaring sun. "And don't you dare come back until you fix everything you caused."

With her words said, Naru proceeded to unceremoniously drop the man down the hole and into his room, followed shortly after by his study material. Before he could so much as blink, she slammed the wood plank over the hole and placed Lido-kun at the top, as if the small plushy could make it heavier.

NOW nursing his sore back, Keitaro managed to make it to his futon before letting himself drop in tiredness. He had studied for hours straight, and Naru's little snap didn't help things either. _"Damn. What's her problem anyway? All I say is that I forgot a little about something, and she tries to kill me!"_

He would have to keep his distance from the girl until she calmed down. But even if that was the best for his well-being, he could already feel his IQ dropping. Temperamental as she was, the girl was really smart.

Keitaro, though, wasn't as angry as he should have been. After 15 years of no interaction with the female sex, his instincts when it came to girls were quite dull. But at the same time, it made the attention he was receiving now even more noticeable than it should have been. He had been studying with Naru for days now, and Shinobu had been an amicable chat from time to time. But up until now he believed that the kindness she showed was because girls in general were supposed to be kind and gentle, while girls like Motoko were very rare exceptions.

And now that Naru had mentioned little ago: _"all because that meeting was so important to her"_; he began to wonder if, just like the kendoist seemed to have more reasons to hate him than him being a male, Shinobu had more reasons to be kind than her being a girl.

Guess he once knew that reason, when he first met her, and then forgot about it.

And now he felt like an ass.

Reason why he wasn't as angry as he should have been with what Naru had done. Because if the red-head was telling the truth, then he had caused two good friends to fight, and there was no one out there that understood the value of friendship as much as a guy who only had two friends, whose names he kind of forgot.

Damn, this was becoming a bad habit of his.

Mental note: try practicing remembering names and faces.

But right now, something had to be done, because that was the way the Ronnin was: he cared. He cared about other people, and was compelled to help them out. Especially in this situation in which he was the one at fault; he had to take responsibility.

But where to start?

All he really knew about the incident was that the bluenette and the kendoist had a fight because of him staying here. Nothing more.

The best way to get to the bottom of it all would be to speak to the people involved directly; but since Naru had grown sick of him for the time being, and Motoko would probably gutter him if he got within a one-meter range of her (He had been carefully avoiding to do that), his only option was Shinobu. And if the vibe he got from the girl was correct, he would get the whole truth. After that he would go from there.

Naru wasn't helping him study any time soon anyway, so he might as well take a break from that and focus on the current problem. The best time to talk to Shinobu about it was when Motoko wasn't around to eavesdrop, which was tomorrow to be exact.

The girl had told him (The context of told being sending Su in her place because she didn't want to direct even a word to him) that she was going for a couple of days to a kendo training camp. That would be his opportunity.

His plan made, Keitaro rose from his futon before he could fall asleep. Sure, he was tired and a little nap would be welcome, but falling from the upper floor in his back was a bitch that left marks, and he wanted to get some painkillers before resting.

With any luck he wouldn't run into either Naru or Motoko.

**Division**

Motoko was at the Hinata´s doorway, minutes away from parting to catch the train that would take her, and those of her school club, to their kendo training camp. For a few days the kendoist wouldn't be around and, once she was gone from the dormitory, Shinobu had hopes of being able to clear things with her Sempai.

Clearing things meaning coming clean with her feelings. She knew it wasn't the smartest thing to do; with keitaro already worried with the entrance exam; but there was no other way to get into the fray with a slight opportunity of success.

As much as she hated to think about it, Shinobu didn't believe her Sempai would be able to make it to Tokyo U in this timeline either. Sure, she could have helped him study, mentally being at university level and all. But she already had enough problems with Motoko and her sudden attitude change without adding up her sudden rise of intelligence. That would be just overkill.

But it wasn't the exam, but rather what came after that mattered. The trip to Kyoto was, in Shinobu's opinion, also inevitable. Keitaro was at the stage in which a failure in the exam for a third time would break him just as hard as the original had. She could try to be a bit more friendly with him; to try to drive home the idea that he was not only the manager, but someone welcome at the Hinata; but since the main reason for the trip was that he would feel he had "failed" them all, especially his promise girl, it would only compel him towards that path even more.

And once on that trip, he would find Naru, and while she now knew they weren't planning a double suicide, it was obvious they would grow closer; close enough for Naru's heart to skip a beat.

After that, it would be hard for her to win a top position in her Sempai's affections. But right now, if she just told him how she felt; if she was the first to do so in his last fifteen years; she was sure to make an impression answer notwithstanding. And without Motoko around to add fuel to the fire, there would be no better time.

The bluenette had entertained the idea of going in Keitaro's pursue like she had done before, but decided against it. Not only would that mean more trouble than what was worth, but she simply didn't know where she would find them. Sure, she knew they were going to Kyoto, but she didn't have a memory extraordinary enough to remember the day or the hour in which they took the train, nor did she know the schedules they would follow.

All she knew was that they went on the trip, met Mutsumi (She was actually looking forward to a re-acquaintance with the melon-loving klutz) and somehow managed to land on a deserted island. And really, even trying to get there would be difficult for her without following the _exact same _routine she did last time.

Time traveler or not, she was a thirteen-year old, economically restrained girl. Getting around by herself was difficult enough without dragging Su along (Or rather, Su dragging her).

So all she would do was confess, assure him she could wait for an answer until after he got into the university (taking into account the extra year) and if she could steal a quick kiss like on their first (and only) date; her heart was racing at the prospect.

But nothing could start until Motoko went away, which would happen once she stopped whispering into Kaolla's ear. What was she telling her anyway? Surely something about getting away from the lecherous male, and Shinobu would go and take a stab in the dark to guess she also added something about keeping an eye on him.

No problem though: distracting Su was a task she had trained for years. How else would she have made sure Christmas's dinner wasn't eaten before it was intended to? Surely not by assigning Kitsune as a watch.

Finally, her inner train came to a halt when Motoko stood, gave one final vow (and a glare in Keitaro's case) and departed towards her train, her steps a bit more hesitant than usual.

They all waved her goodbye, with Su being the last to finally tear her eyes away from the door. Which was a good thing, as it gave Shinobu time to suddenly take Keitaro's hand and drag him into the kitchen. Knowing the risks fully as well, Kitsune followed.

"Shi-shinobu what-…?"

"_Shhh_" Putting a finger on his lips, the little cook signaled him to kneel and hide behind the wall. "Don't let her see you Sempai." She whispered.

"See me? Who?"

"Oh! So you already know. Good for you, but poor Naru, she doesn't know what is coming to her." Both fellow tenants took their time to give a little prayer for the red-head. Shinobu's was a little less faithful though, as she was still considering switching religious if her gods continued messing with Keitaro's luck.

"Can someone tell me what's happening here?" The man didn't get what was happening, but knew well enough to follow their example and keep it low.

"You see, Manager-San. Su over there likes to 'stick' to people. She's always around someone. For now is Motoko, but before she arrived here it was me who she spent her time around. And honestly speaking, you need a great deal of stamina to endure her, especially in the night."

"Re-really? Kaolla-San?" Sure, the girl was energetic, and he had seen her bouncing (Yes, "bouncing" on the literal meaning of the word) several times around the Hinata, but she never struck him as too much of a handful. A bit irritating maybe, a little hyperactive as well, but not material to hide while she wasn't surrounded by her robots.

Poor idiot.

"You will see later on Sempai." She left it at that, unable to find the words to describe the bone-shattering bear hug, and just how it managed to escalate to such. Besides, with his room under Naru's, he was sure to hear. "But at least she won't interrupt you when you study, she already chose Naru."

As Shinobu spoke, Su had taken Narusegawa's hands into hers, and was beaming with a cute smile; a cute smile that, for inexplicable reasons, sent a shiver down the glasses-girl's spine.

"Well, guess you are right." Having her around would surely be a complication, but with her bothering Naru (His new found tutor) the results wouldn't vary that much. "Anyway, Shinobu-Chan we need to talk."

"Huh?" That was… sudden. Shinobu actually made an effort to stop the fantasies stirring at her mind this time. A confession from his part was way away for the time being. "Um… sure, Sempai. What is it?"

"I…" He eyed Kitsune a bit, carefully choosing his words to avoid sounding rude. "…would prefer if we talked in private."

Kitsune, being who she was, caught on. "Oh! Okay, I get it. But remember, if you need another Bunny costume, I got way more from where the last came from."

The ash-haired woman grinned as little Shinobu-Chan whirled around to give her a glare, one which was more adorable than threatening as she couldn't stop the blush from appearing on her face, nor could she ignore Keitaro's not-so-subtle attempt to wipe the tiny blood drop coming out of his nose.

With one final chuckle, the woman gave them space.

**Division**

"So is it true? Are you fighting with Aoyama-San because of me?" Keitaro asked worriedly.

It had taken a while for the two of them to finally get some space. A _long_ while. Even though Su had chosen Naru instead of keitaro this time around, that didn't mean the girl didn't want to spend time with her newest playmate. So they wandered around the Hinata for hours, trying to lose the girl who took their escape attempts as Hide-and-Seek games.

Then it was Kitsune. She said she would give them space, but not how much. She was determined to hear whatever they had to say, just in case something juicy happened, and once Shinobu realized that they had to spend another set of hours hiding and misdirecting the three girls.

But now, with the three of them taking a bath, it was the perfect time for a private talk up in the balcony. Too bad it wasn't going like Shinobu intended.

"No! well… yes, kind of-uh!" This had taken her off guard, and now she seriously didn't know what to say. "Okay, it _was_ because of you, but it was my fault it became a fight."

"Really? Naru told me that it was because I was the manager here."

"Yes, that was part of the reason. She didn't want you here… I did…" She added silently. "And when I told her, well, I said things that I shouldn't have and made her mad. And since she thinks you are the cause, she is blaming you." Looking up at the man, she gazed at him with regretting eyes. "Sorry."

"Eh? No, Shinobu-Chan, why are you apologizing?" As far as he knew, Naru had been right: he had caused a kind of mess.

"It feels like the right thing to do, with her blaming you for what I said."

"It's okay Shinobu-Chan, it should be me the one apologizing; I should have realized sooner." If he had, maybe he could have helped calm things down before they escalated. "But anyway, you said that was part of the reason. What about the rest?" The Ronnin inquired.

A gulp died in the young lass's throat, as she refused to show any sign of nervousness beyond her red cheeks and shifting feet.

This was it.

The rest of the reason why Motoko was at odds with her: the fact that she disapproved of Shinobu's feelings for her Manager.

Daring to look once more at the man, the girl felt her heart skip several beats like some sort of malfunctioning swing clock. The sun had already gone down, testimony of just how much time they had been avoiding the other girls; in its place were several stars of shining white, a clear black sky, and the silver moon gazing upon them. It was a beautiful night, but Shinobu didn't pay any attention.

It was all but decoration compared to Keitaro's young face. Even now, before his year in training with Seta, his face looked quite handsome in her opinion. His glasses reflecting the dots in the sky, his eyes that were pools of fine, polished clay. His short, brown hair that made him look so young, and his head illuminated from behind by the moon's light.

Had she had less self-control, Shinobu would have kissed him there and then.

She was doing it anyways, wasn't she?

The bluenette couldn't help her sweating hands.

"You see…she doesn't approve…of the way I feel…" She allowed the sentence to trail off, missing the _about you_ that was supposed to follow.

"The way…you-"

"No!" Once more, she silenced him with her finger. "Please don't talk…I-it's difficult for me to tell you if you speak." Not being able to endure his questioning gaze, the girl looked at her feet. Even if she had been mentally prepared, for some reason her mind was slightly blurry, her heart was beating hard, and her breaths came heavy, as gasps.

"_Come on!_" She told herself. "_Just do it! You have the chance, so just do it!_"

Steeling her nerves, Shinobu took a deep breath. "She doesn't approve that I…that I li-… **that I like you!**"

There! She said it! She finally took it off her che-!

"SEMPAI!" Alarmed, Shinobu kneeled over Keitaro. Somewhere between her little confession the man had suddenly dropped to the floor, face up, unconscious. Was it because of the shock of her confession? She doubted it, Keitaro wasn't like Mutsumi after all.

But then what? He didn't look like he had fainted, or had been knocked out. He looked as if he had suddenly fallen asleep. Exhaustion maybe? But that didn't explain what was happening to his clothes, which where whizzing out of existence.

Yep, you heard right, whizzing, as in, _evaporating_.

His legs were already visible, even his… even his… his…

"_Wow, he really does need to grow up._" It was kind of cute though; she wondered if it would fit-WHAT THE HELL WAS SHE THINKING?

What was even happening?

And why at the exact same time of her confession? Damn!

Okay, it was definitive: from this moment on, the little cook was a Christian.

Grabbing a blanket she had hanged earlier, Shinobu wrapped it around Keitaro's naked body, and began to drag him back to his room; a difficult task for someone of her size. With any luck she wouldn't find any of the girls, and she might even be able to discover what happened to her Sempai's clothes.

But seriously, what the heck?

**Division**

Far away from the Hinata; and far away from Japan; wind roared as it ran through the fields of Mid-land China. With the closest human community miles away, no one bore witness as dark clouds gathered in the sky, and yet at the same time, parted to give way to a pillar of radiance. Light flared as it tore apart the night and then, just as fast as lighting struck Earth, the strange phenomenon had come and gone.

Leaves dance in the cold, night air as the winds had yet to subside, shaking the branches of several trees. On the spot in which the light had touched the ground, stood a girl. She bore various Chinese features, yet she was only so in heritage. Long, black hair flowed from her head and down to her shoulders. A pair of faint blushed cheeks adorned her faced, but these seemed more permanent than those caused by embarrassment.

Orbs of obsidian shifted from one direction to another, taking in their surroundings. The girl was, by many standards, a typical Chinese lass. The only prominent features in her persona were her unusual clothes. They were unique and definitely foreign, and yet not belonging to any kind of fashion from any country save perhaps cosplay, but what she wore was more than a handmade disguise.

Tearing her sight apart from the scenery, she allowed herself a sigh of relief. She had done it.

She had actually managed to escape and come here, a task not made difficult by the distance that had to be traveled, but by her persecutors, who were more than a little glad to seize her plans. It didn't matter though, they weren't showing up anytime soon, and if she had something to do about it, nor ever.

But alongside this victory of hers, there was a nagging feeling at the back of her head; a sensation that something wasn't quite right. Reaching into a pocket, she retrieved a strange looking device. Gazing into its screen, she saw the numbers displayed and frowned.

She had landed off-mark.

She had landed off-mark BIG.

This was going to be a problem. She didn't schedule her arrival until year and a half from now. And while she could use the extra time to polish her plan, her age played a key factor in it.

But what could have gone wrong?

Her entire life was devoted to this one attempt, and she poured all of her knowledge and energy into it. From the sketching to the building of the machine; reading all those tomes; making all the needed calculations and verifying them not twice but thrice… Just how could she have failed?

Her trusty device answered her question. Displaying a small error message. So that was it? A small interference had caused such a big problem? It didn't matter. What happened had happened, and there was no use fretting over what couldn't be done. Instead she would have to focus on this little problem, but if her genius had anything to say about it, it wouldn't be an issue.

Tinkering a bit more with the strange device, she quickly found the source of the distortion. And look at that! Lucky her, it seemed to have been originated in Japan, and very close to her original destination. If anything, this was turning to be rather convenient, but only time would see.

She chuckled a bit. _Time_.

That word would never cease to amuse her for the time being, and made her quite confident of the situation. If she could beat time, this was no sweat. Unfortunately, transportation after the arrival had not been accounted for, and there was a bit of distance to be covered. Better start walking then.

"Seems like I have to take a little detour, he. No problem, I have a bit of spare time anyways-ne."

Smiling, Chao Lingshen disappeared into the night.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Another one down, around thirty to go. Oh joy...<strong>

**I will make a serious attmpt to accelerate the updates, but with things still kind of stormy, this won't be my top priority. Sorry if I let you down.**

**Well, that aside, guess it's time for the chapter's explanation. I always have a compulsion of explaining the way things worked on a chapter, just to make sure the reader understantds.**

**First of all, and something I guess I should have explained earlier, is the time jumps. With every change of the scene, and unless it is stated otherwise, I don't skip hours but days in the story. This is because while I am rewriting the Manga's plot from Shinobu's POV, I have no intention of re-editing the story. Most of the events will be abridged from the original ones, and some will be out right skipped if they are not relevant enough to Shinobu. Hence the time skips. Just so you know.**

**Next, Naru's attitude on the chapter. Due to the recent number of Fanfics which portray her in an unfavorable light, I feel like I need to explain a bit to avoid misunderstandings. Naru is quite temperamental, but dispite what some of you may argue, she also has a rational side. Thing is, I am currently thinning that side of hers out by the stress the recents events ever since Keitaro's arrival is causing to her. Su choosing her as her new sleeping partner is only icing to the cake.**

**Yeah, I am kind of fucking up with her. It's fun.**

**And while it may not look like something relevant outside the trademark lashings at Keitaro, it will play a special role later on.**

**And to conclude, about the final parts of the Chapter...well, let's just say I had been planning an arc dedicated exclusively to Shinobu's Timetravel. That's all I will say for now.**

**Thanks for taking your time to read, and I hope you enjoyed it. Have a nice day, or night depending on where you live.**

**'til next time.**

**Peace.**


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